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PORTLAND – When it came down to it, unbeaten Bucksport won its first state football championship in 21 years by posing two questions Jay’s Tigers simply couldn’t answer.
The Golden Bucks’ million-dollar question was, how do you stop, or at least slow down, Nick Tymoczko? The second was how do you stop, or at least slow, Bucksport’s pass rush?
In both cases, there was only one answer: the clock winding down and the end of the game.
Tymoczko defied description and anyone trying to tackle him during a 330-yard rushing effort and the unbeaten Bucks had numerous hurries, five sacks and one interception en route to a dominating 42-20 Class C state-title victory over Jay at Fitzpatrick Stadium on Saturday.
“Their two defensive ends? We just couldn’t deal with them,” Jay coach Mark Bonnevie, whose Tigers wind up 11-1. “They were terrors. We had a hard time with them all game.”
And Tymoczko?
“He had a few runs where I just didn’t see anything there and he still turned it into five, six, seven yards or more,” Bonnevie said, still shaking his head. “You can’t game plan against guys who are physical like that and can run you over.”
Bucksport’s 5-foot-9, 180-pound pigskin pile driver took his first handoff up the middle, ran over one would-be tackler, ran through another, shook off a third, and bounced off the fourth for eight yards. He never looked back, averaging 8.3 yards for each of his 40 carries.
“We really marched down the field and boosted our confidence,” Tymoczko said. “With our attack, we figured we’d try to neutralize their quickness by going right at them. We had a lot of explosive line surges and we just took it to them.”
Tymoczko was the perfect instrument for head coach Joel Sankey’s plan to use Jay’s great all-around team speed against it while exploiting the Bucks’ size advantage at the same time.
“We wanted to wear them down, take time off the clock and not give them as many chances with the ball,” said Sankey. “This team we played was quick and that’s what scared me. We didn’t think we could run our stretch play or our toss on them. That’s why I think the first series of the game was huge.”
Tymoczko carried five times for 22 yards in the series that resulted in a 47-yard drive culminating with John Harvey’s catch in the right flat for a 14-yard touchdown reception on a rollout by Joey Carmichael. Harvey set up the drive by returning the opening kickoff 38 yards to midfield.
Bucksport forced Jay to go four downs and out, and drove to midfield before Jay’s Zane Armandi picked off a Carmichael pass and returned it 56 yards to the Bucks’ 1-yard line. Justin Wells scored on a run up the middle with 3:26 left in the first quarter, but his two-point conversion pass was intercepted by Carmichael.
Four plays later, the Bucks punted, but Deven Eaton delivered a ball-parting tackle to Jay’s Joel Ouellette on the return and Joel Milan recovered the ball at the Jay 20. Tymoczko scored five plays later on a 5-yard run and Reed Beeson kicked his second PAT.
That set up Bucksport’s defensive series of the game. Jay advanced 66 yards in five plays – the key play a 50-yard reception by Andrew Deering – and had 1st-and-goal at the Bucksport 6. The Bucks pressured Wells, who threw an incomplete pass. On second down, he slightly overthrew an open Ryan Dipompo in the back of the end zone. On third, tackle Travis Tolman bore down on him before Wells could react and dropped him for a 14-yard loss on the sack.
Harvey tipped Wells’ fourth-down pass attempt into double coverage to the turf, the Bucks took over on downs, and then drove 80 yards despite two straight holding penalties that made it first-and-36 from the B-9. Tymoczko took the handoff, burst off right tackle and sprinted 81 yards. Harvey capped the drive with a 10-yard TD run and Jay would never be closer the rest of the game.
“They have a real small line compared to what we’re used to in the east,” said Bucks center Chris Gray. “I think we were able to overpower them and wore them down the first half.”
Wells finished with 231 passing yards, but completed only 10 of 21 attempts.
“We needed to put pressure on him. If we sat in zones and let him sit back there, he’d pick us apart. So we worked all week long on getting our defensive linemen at him,” said Bucks defensive coordinator Wayne Richards. “We worked different angles and had some twists inside to free up our defensive ends and we’re blessed with some good ones. We tried to angle five yards from where the ball was because when he catches the ball, he steps up.”
So did Bucksport’s defense on this crisp Saturday night on Fitzpatrick’s artificial turf.
GOLDEN BUCKS 42, TIGERS 20
Jay (11-1) 6 0 0 14 – 20
Bucksport (12-0) 7 14 14 7 – 42
B- Harvey 14 run (Beeson kick)
J- Wells 1 run (pass failed)
B- Tymoczko 5 run (Beeson kick)
B- Harvey 10 run (Beeson kick)
B- Harvey 21 run (Beeson kick)
B- Tymoczko 4 run (Beeson kick)
J- Dipompo 15 pass from Wells (Nemi kick)
B- Tymoczko 9 run (Beeson kick)
J- Dipompo 35 pass from Wells (Nemi kick)
Jay Bucksport
First downs 11 19
Rushing att.-yards 23-20 57-419
Passing comp.-att. 10-21 2-4
Passing yards 231 55
Total yards 251 474
Punts-avg. 3-39.8 1-35.0
Fumbles-lost 2-2 3-1
Intercepted by 1 1
Penalties-yards 3-15 6-48
Rushing
Jay: McCourt 7-36, Ouellette 5-16, Nemi 2-15, Bourassa 2-6, Wells 7-(minus-53); Bucksport: Tymoczko 40-330, Harvey 6-53, Carmichael 5-19, Babson 6-17
Passing
Jay: Wells 10-21-1-231; Bucksport: Carmichael 2-4-1-55
Receiving
Jay: Deering 3-132, Dipompo 2-50, Ouellette 2-25, McCourt 1-12, DeSanctis 1-6, Bourassa 1-6; Bucksport: Harvey 2-55
A-600 (est.)
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