New offensive line aids Belfast quest Lions hungry for another state crown

There’s often a fine line between success and frustration in pursuit of football excellence.

Thanks in part to a fine line, Belfast Area High School will make their sixth appearance in the Class B state championship game in the last nine years Saturday when the Lions square off against Gorham at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.

Offensive line play was one of the major questions to be answered when Belfast opened training camp in August – all five linemen from last year’s squad were among 18 starters who graduated from the 2002 team.

“We knew we had some pretty good athletes we were putting into the skill positions,” said Belfast co-coach Butch Arthers. “We thought if we could develop our offensive line, we’d be OK.”

In senior captain Ronnie Morse, classmate Chris Hubbard, juniors Scott Hopkins and Jason Wilkie and sophomore Nick Thomann, the Lions have found the front line that has propelled junior tailback Josh Aldus to a 1,000-yard rushing season and Belfast to 314 rushing yards in last Saturday’s 35-14 win over previously undefeated Winslow 35-14 in the EM final.

“It feels great,” said Morse. “We do our work, and then the running backs do theirs, and it’s working pretty good.”

“It’s really been incredible, added senior captain Tim Morley. “There was a lot of talk about if they could do it, replacing all five starters, but they’ve been great. It really picked up around the playoffs; they’ve really stepped up their game.”

The line’s development wasn’t a case of instant success, not surprising given that only Morse had any significant varsity experience, having started two games a year ago.

But that group, as well as the other first-year Belfast starters, benefited from some easy early season victories that allowed them to gain both experience and confidence before facing the heart of the schedule.

“We had three or four games to give all the kids a chance to play a lot, and in that way this year was similar to last year,” said Arthers. “We worked hard with the linemen, and they’ve been great in terms of letting us coach them. They seem to be jelling right now.”

Belfast’s offense has been at its best the last three weeks, averaging 34 points per game in the regular-season finale at Hampden Academy and playoff wins at Brewer and Winslow.

Part of that stemmed from the return of senior quarterback-linebacker Nick Arthers to full strength after missing the middle of the season due to shoulder problems.

Much of it stemmed from the cohesion between the line and the running backs.

“In this game, it seems like if everything doesn’t happen just at the right moment, the play’s not there,” said senior captain Paul Herman, a fullback and middle linebacker. “You can get there a second before the hole is there or a second after, and it doesn’t work. But as the season has gone on the line really started getting their timing down and that’s been a big part of our success.”

That success, and Belfast’s ascension to this year’s state final, wasn’t universally expected by those who follow Class B football, primarily because Winslow returned a team of veterans who missed out on last year’s playoff in a tiebreaker, thus denying the Black Raiders the chance to defend their 2001 state title.

But Belfast had its own motivation. While few of this year’s Lions had experienced the varsity spotlight before, all remembered how the 2002 season ended – its offense stopped 1 yard short of the goal line with 1:28 left in a state final Belfast lost to Scarborough by two points, 14-12.

“That has probably been one of our main sources of motivation,” said Nick Arthers, a team captain. “During the offseason they put a picture up of the Scarborough team getting the gold ball and hung it right above our bench-press machine, and every time we went in to work out we’d look at that and it made us want to push even harder.

“Everybody said this was going to be a rebuilding year, and Belfast might make it into the playoffs, but all the linemen, everybody on the team took it to heart, and wanted to show that this wasn’t a rebuilding year for Belfast. We wanted to make it back to the state game and avenge the loss we had there last year.”