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LINCOLN – It was quite a weekend double feature for James McPhee.
By night, he performed in Foxcroft Academy’s production of “Camelot.”
By day, he led the school’s football team to its third Eastern Maine Class C championship in the last four years as the Ponies topped Mattanawcook Academy 28-14 on Saturday at muddy Curry Field.
The 5-foot-11, 215-pound senior fullback rushed for 115 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries and teamed with fellow inside linebacker Josh Pelletier to anchor a defense that limited the run-oriented Lynx to 49 yards on 27 rushes – 1.8 yards per attempt.
“I feel I played today like I never have before,” said McPhee. “I don’t know if it’s because it was the Eastern Maines, but something just hit me today. There was just something special about today.”
MA managed only 73 total yards in the first half, 53 on a pass from senior quarterback Dylan Hanscom to senior fullback Jason Murchison. The Lynx finished with 174 total yards and nine first downs, but 63 yards and four first downs came in the game’s final minutes during a drive that ended when Hanscom hit senior Drew Welch with a 26-yard TD pass as time expired.
“We know that Lincoln is an outstanding running team, that’s what they do,” said Pelletier. “They’re not known for passing, they’re known for coming straight at you and their focus is to ram it down your throat. We realized that and we knew we had to stop them, so we were focused on stopping the run.”
Foxcroft senior tailback Joey Caparrelli added 129 rushing yards and a touchdown as the Ponies amassed 222 yards on the ground behind the line play of Pelletier, Adam Dow, Tim Nason, David White, and Bill Macomber along with McPhee’s bullish lead blocks.
“It was so slippery because the mud was unbelievable,” said Caparrelli. “We couldn’t run any of our counter game because it was so slippery, so we just had to run to the sideline or straight ahead. The linemen did an incredible job; I don’t know how they could block in this mess.”
The win sets up a Class C state final at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland on Saturday between 10-1 Foxcroft and 10-1 Lisbon, a 36-0 winner over Boothbay in Saturday’s Western Maine title game. The game time will be announced today.
Foxcroft and Lisbon last met in the 2003 state championship game, with the Ponies earning a 26-20 victory, and also squared off in the 1997 title game, when the Greyhounds rallied for a 19-14 victory.
Mattanawcook, which was the top seed despite suffering a 14-12 loss to Foxcroft here during the regular season, finished 9-2.
“They’re a good football team,” said MA coach Art Greenlaw. “I think we’re a good football team, too, but they were better than we were today.”
Mattanawcook had control of the game’s early moments. The Lynx drove 57 yards to the FA-4 on their first possession before the Ponies’ Brad Bellemare broke up a fourth-and-goal pass in the end zone.
But the Lynx soon got the ball back at the FA-9 thanks to a blocked punt by Dan Lifer, and one play later, senior tailback Duncan Markie scored on a 9-yard run.
Hanscom passed to Shey Gardiner for the two-point conversion that gave the Lynx an 8-0 lead with 2:23 left in the opening quarter, but the rest of the game belonged to Foxcroft as the Ponies surged to their 10th consecutive victory.
“Our motto has been all or nothing, turn it up or turn it in, and that’s what we did today, we played phenomenal,” said McPhee. “The field conditions weren’t great, but we showed we didn’t need a great field, we just turned it up.”
The Ponies took the subsequent kickoff and drove 62 yards in 13 plays, with McPhee powering across the goal line from 1 yard out with 8:53 left in the first half. MA’s Ian Nevells blocked the extra-point kick, leaving the Lynx with an 8-6 lead.
Foxcroft took the lead 1:09 later, after its defense forced Mattanawcook to punt from deep in its territory. The Ponies gained possession at the Lynx 36, and senior wideout Jon Catell ran under a Logan Forrest pass in the end zone on first down for the touchdown, then hooked up with the Foxcroft quarterback for the two-point conversion pass to give the Ponies a 14-8 lead.
Jerod Rideout recovered a muffed MA punt return to give Foxcroft the ball at the Lynx 36, and McPhee did the rest to extend Foxcroft’s lead to 21-8 before intermission. McPhee went right for 25 yards on the first play after the change of possession, then scored from 11 yards out on the next play before Bellemare added the extra-point kick.
“When we got that second score, I could just see the confidence keep building and building in our kids,” said Foxcroft coach Paul Withee, “and when we got that third score, they [MA] looked like they became kind of unsure of themselves.”
Neither team mustered much offense amid deteriorating field conditions in the second half, but Foxcroft did add a pad touchdown with 1:26 left in the game as Caparrelli scored on an 11-yard run to make it 28-8.
But when the clock soon ran out, McPhee’s double feature was merely at halftime. Camelot was calling.
“I’ve got to do it again tonight,” said McPhee. “I’ve got a couple of lines to say, and a dance scene.”
PONIES 28, LYNX 14
Foxcroft (10-1) 0 21 0 7 – 28
Mattanawcook (9-2) 8 0 0 6 – 14
M-Markie 9 run (Gardner pass from Hanscom)
F-McPhee 1 run (kick blocked)
F-Catell 36 pass from Forrest (Catell pass from Forrest)
F-McPhee 11 run (Bellemare kick)
F-Caparrelli 11 run (Bellemare kick)
M-Welch 26 pass from Hanscom (no attempt)
Foxcroft MA
First downs 16 9
Rushing att.-yards 51-222 27-49
Passing comp.-att. 2-6 9-21
Passing yards 66 125
Total yards 288 174
Punts-avg. 3-19.3 6-29.0
Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-2
Intercepted by 0 1
Penalties-yards 6-39 7-52
Rushing
Foxcroft: Caparrelli 24-129, McPhee 21-115, Bellemare 1-(minus 2), Adkins 2-(minus 6), Forrest 3-(minus 14); Mattanawcook: Markie 10-30, Hanscom 6-13, Braley 3-8, Murchison 6-6, Gardner 1-(minus 3), Birmingham 1-(minus 5)
Passing
Foxcroft: Forrest 2-6-1-66; Mattanawcook: Hanscom 9-21-0-125
Receiving
Foxcroft: Catell 1-36, Croan 1-30; Mattanawcook: Gardner 3-23, Murchison 1-53, Welch 1-26, Miller 1-11, Johnson 1-5, Kimball 1-5, Markie 1-2
A-1,750 (est.)
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