Falcons capitalize on turnovers to soar past Winslow

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PORTLAND – The Mountain Valley football team entered Saturday’s Class B state championship game gunning for the school’s first-ever state title.

Two quick Winslow fumbles later, the Falcons were well on their way.

The Western Maine representatives from Rumford capitalized on first-quarter turnovers and got a game-high 141 yards and two touchdowns from Aaron Arsenault for a 21-7 victory over the Black Raiders at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

And the Falcons (11-1) got that elusive first championship.

“This is unbelievable,” said senior quarterback Zach Fergola. “It feels great. We didn’t really know what to think at the beginning of the season but we just tried playing to see what happened.”

Although it was the first title for Mountain Valley High, the old Mexico High School won three Class C state games in the 1960s. Mexico and Rumford high schools merged in 1989. Mexico residents send their students to Mountain Valley.

Winslow, a perennial Class B powerhouse, was going for its first state crown since 2001.

The Black Raiders, who were a bit of a surprise this year considering their youth, wrap up the season at 9-3.

Some of that showed early, however, as Winslow’s Jared Maroon fumbled the opening kickoff. Devin Roberts recovered the ball for Mountain Valley at the Raider 31-yard line to give the Falcons excellent field position on their opening drive.

And they took advantage. Mountain Valley got down to the 27. On third-and-six, Fergola completed a 13-yard pass to Chris Smith for the first down and the Falcons chipped away until Arsenault scooted into the end zone on a 3-yard run.

“We had more turnovers in this game than we probably did in our last five,” Winslow coach Mike Siviski said. “That was it. … That first quarter did us in because we could never really get any momentum.”

Winslow got the ball back at its 30 and drove to the Mountain Valley 40, but the Falcon defense sacked Raiders quarterback Steven Siviski at the 45. The ball came loose and Pat Knapp picked it up and returned it 55 yards for a 13-0 lead.

Kyle Dow had two sacks on the drive.

“Scoring the two touchdowns was huge,” Fergola said. “It really gave us a big push. We always try to capitalize on turnovers and I think [Knapp’s touchdown] was the biggest play, actually.”

The Black Raiders played tough second-half defense, stopping the Falcons on fourth-and-four on their opening drive and forcing four straight punts at one point, but they couldn’t get anything going on offense until early in the fourth quarter.

Winslow finally scored on a three-play drive early in the fourth. Siviski threw a 15-yard pass to Eric Lopez, followed by Justin Lindie’s 25-yard run to get the Raiders to the Falcons’ 24. Maroon ran it in for a touchdown to cut Mountain Valley’s lead to 13-7.

The Falcons got the ball back with 5:55 left and were likely just looking to run out the rest of the game. Thanks to Arsenault they were able to do that and more.

The junior, who is listed at 5-foot-5, 150 pounds, had two third-down conversions to keep the ball moving. One of those was a one-yard gain on third-and-one from the Winslow 49.

“That was huge. We really needed to put something together,” Arsenault said. “We came out a little slow in the second half but when we had to put it together we did. We knew we needed to get that first down for the game.”

The other was a 19-yard pickup on third-and-five from the 43. He ran 19 yards on that play, then another six on first down, and after a Winslow penalty put the ball at the 12, Arsenault took the ball in for an insurance score.

Lindie paced the Raiders with 100 yards on 21 carries.

Winslow was without senior lineman Andy Poulin, who suffered an injury during the PTC Class B final against Brewer last week.

FALCONS 21, BLACK RAIDERS 7

Winslow (9-3) 0 0 0 7 – 7

Mountain Val. (11-1) 13 0 0 8 – 21

MV – Arsenault 3 run (Madigan kick)

MV – Knapp 55 fumble return (kick failed)

W – Maroon 24 run (B. Poulin kick)

MV – Arsenault 12 run (Lever pass from Fergola)

Winslow Mtn. Valley

First downs 8 12

Rushing att.-yards 35-128 48-187

Passing comp.-att. 6-11 3-9

Passing yards 38 47

Total yards 166 234

Punts-avg. 3-32.6 4-35.7

Fumbles-lost 3-2 0-0

Intercepted by 2 2

Penalties-yards 2-10 2-10

Rushing

Winslow: J. Lindie 21-100, Maroon 3-46, Siviski 7-5, R. Lindie 4-(minus 23); Mountain Valley: Arsenault 27-141, Smith 10-30, Fergola 10-18, Knapp 1-(minus 2)

Passing

Winslow: Siviski 6-9-2-38, J. Lindie 0-2-0-0; Mountain Valley: Fergola 3-8-1-47, Staries 0-1-1-0

Receiving

Winslow: Lopez 3-38, Maroon 1-4, Pellerin 1-3, J. Lindie 1-(minus 7); Mountain Valley: Smith 1-13, Staries 2-34

A-1,500 (est.)