ORONO – All week long, the talk surrounding Friday night’s football game between Orono and unbeaten Rockland was how would Orono’s defense contend with the Tigers’ prodigious, multi-faceted, and balanced offensive attack.

After the first half at Orono’s rain-slicked field, most observers had their answer. The Red Riots would use their smash-mouth ground game to keep the Tigers’ offense off the field and wear down the defense at the same time.

It worked like a charm.

The Riots stormed out to a 28-0 lead en route to a 56-14 victory built on a rushing game that ground out a whopping 446 yards on 53 carries.

“We can’t simulate what they do [offensively] with JV teams and look teams, so we just tried to work on what they did,” said head coach Bob Sinclair, whose Red Riots improved to 2-1. “And we knew offensively we could try to keep theirs off the field because they’re very explosive and we match up very well up front.”

Orono’s offensive “front” of Brad Russell, Matt Baker, Dustin Nevells, Rob Chauvette, and the recently returned Colby Caruso, who missed the first two weeks, opened lane after lane and hole after hole for their three-headed rushing monster: halfbacks Mardy Simon and Travis Dunton and fullback Nyasha Millard.

Simon ran for 25 of his team’s 32 yards on the game’s opening drive and never looked back. At halftime, he had two touchdowns and an eye-popping 202 yards on 12 carries. He would only touch the ball twice in the second half and finished with 217 yards.

“We wanted to run smashmouth football and our line just played great all night,” said Simon, who slipped or simply ran through several tackles. “It was pretty wet, so that probably helped.”

Simon scored the first two touchdowns, and then the offensive spotlight switched to Millard.

He capped a five-play, 48-yard drive with a 7-yard TD run to make it 20-0 with 3:22 left in the first half. Two minutes later, he ran a punt down the visiting sideline, shuffling off one tackler and speeding to the end zone for a 45-yard TD return.

Despite Orono’s 28-8 halftime lead, the Tigers proved resilient as they took the second-half kickoff and marched 68 yards in eight plays. Quarterback Andrew Weiss’ 2-yard TD run – his second of the game – made it 28-14 four minutes in.

So Millard, Dunton, and Simon went back to work, grinding out 59 yards in 11 plays before scoring again, recovering one of five Rockland fumbles on the night – this one on the R-19 – and cashing in with Millard’s 7-yard TD run, one of five TDs he’d have Friday.

“Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. This is my first 100-yard game ever,” said the senior fullback. “The answer score we had right after they scored really helped. We were clicking right from the start with our running game, but that was where I think we took control.”

Rockland would never get closer to scoring again than Orono’s 34-yard line as the Riots defense kept Weiss in the pocket most of the time and kept talented back Mike Marsh contained with 71 yards on 13 carries.

“We didn’t get to him as much as we liked, but we did neutralize their run for the most part and pursued up and down the line of scrimmage,” Sinclair said. “We worked hard on not overpursuing.”

The play of senior defensive end bookends Brad Russell and Travis Bryant was critical as they kept Rockland’s ballcarriers inside and unable to cut outside most of the time. They also spearheaded a defensive line rush and intensive pressure leading to four fumble recoveries, two interceptions, and five sacks.

Weiss, who was leading the LTC with 333 yards passing, was held to 98 after completing 10 of 20 passes for the 2-1 Tigers. He also gained 33 yards on 19 carries.

Rockland’s first score came on a Weiss 2-yard TD run that capped a seven-play, 69-yard drive with 25 seconds left in the first half. Orono almost added another score before the half as Simon had a 23-yard kickoff return, a seven-yard gain, and then a 53-yard run that ended just two yards shy of the end zone via a Marsh tackle with no time left.

RED RIOTS 56, TIGERS 14

Rockland (2-1) 0 8 6 0 – 14

Orono (2-1) 7 21 14 14 – 56

O-Simon 16 run (Brothers kick)

O-Simon 60 run (Brothers kick)

O-Millard 7 run (rush failed)

O-Simon 45 punt return (Millard rush)

R-Marsh 2 run (Weiss pass to Morrill)

R-Weiss 2 run (rush failed)

O-Millard 1 run (Brothers kick)

O-Millard 7 run (Brothers kick)

O-Millard 21 run (Bussell rush)

O-Paul 7 run (kick failed)

Rockland Orono

First downs 12 20

Rushing att.-yards 36-131 53-446

Passing comp.-att. 10-20 0-0

Passing yards 98 0

Total yards 229 446

Punts-avg. 2-25.5 1-45.0

Fumbles-lost 5-4 2-1

Intercepted by 0 2

Penalties-yards 5-40 3-24

Rushing

Rockland: Marsh 13-71, Weiss 19-33, Coppola 2-21, Elwell 2-6; Orono: Simon 14-217, Millard 16-118, Dunton 13-74, Scott 4-13, Paul 2-12, Dwyer 1-7, Stout 2-5, Bussell 1-0

Passing

Rockland: Weiss 10-20-2-98; Orono: none

Receiving

Rockland: Morrill 4-53, Tripp 1-16, Elwell 3-6, Coppola 2-(-8); Orono: none

A-300 (est.)