Foxcroft rolls, tops Tigers for berth in final Ponies feature talent, depth

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DOVER-FOXCROFT – It’s playoff time, and the beat goes on for the Foxcroft Academy football team.

The undefeated and top-ranked Ponies used their deep and relentless ground game and an attacking defense to subdue No. 4 Rockland 32-0 in an LTC semifinal at Oakes Field on Friday night, keeping alive their bid for a third straight regional championship and fifth title in the last six years.

Foxcroft (10-0) will host the winner of Saturday’s scheduled semifinal between No. 2 John Bapst of Bangor and No. 3 Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln for the Eastern Maine Class C crown on Nov. 10.

Rockland, making its first postseason appearance since 1988, finishes 5-5.

Shane Adkins rushed for 126 yards and a touchdown and Jerod Rideout added 92 yards and two scores as Foxcroft methodically pulled away. The Ponies finished with 354 rushing yards on 55 carries and outgained Rockland 361-145 in total offense.

“I thought that we played extremely well tonight and executed especially on the offensive side of things,” said Foxcroft coach Paul Withee. “I thought they would have a lot of difficulty stopping our running game.”

That rushing attack was fronted by fullback Ben Provost (11 carries, 66 yards) and the line play of center Josh Boone, guards Adam LePrevost and Robert Segerson and tackles Andrew Larson and Dan Moriarty, who won the battles along the line of scrimmage that enabled the Ponies to average 6.4 yards per carry and total 21 first downs.

“I thought our offensive line just really controlled things,” said Withee. “That’s really where the game was won.”

Rockland, which had lost its last two regular-season games by a combined 106-41, returned senior Andrew Weiss to full-time duty at quarterback for the first time since he suffered a shoulder injury early in the season.

The Tigers hoped that would ignite their own speed-based rushing attack, but Foxcroft defensive ends Evan Worthing and Jon Geiger denied Weiss access to the corners and Rockland was unable to muster much between the tackles. Weiss finished with 61 yards on 23 carries, but the Tigers had just 76 rushing yards overall.

“We just felt that the way they were going to line up against us that we were going to have a better chance racing the edges with Andrew as a runner and trying to flood those zones early, but their defensive ends did a great job,” said Rockland coach Woody Moore. “We had two guys on them and they were still getting pressure.”

And on the relatively few occasions when Rockland went to the air, Foxcroft’s Jason Gould was ever-present – intercepting three of the Tigers’ nine pass attempts.

“Jason’s really a tremendous athlete and done a great job for us all year,” said Withee. “Credit to the kids in the secondary, I thought they did a tremendous job for us.”

This game’s defining sequence came early in the second quarter.

Foxcroft had scored on its first possession of the contest, marching 57 yards in six plays to take a 6-0 lead on an 8-yard run by Rideout with 9:34 left in the opening quarter.

Rockland later drove from its 21 to third-and-goal at Foxcroft 1 as the first period ended, but a penalty and a quarterback sack ended that threat, and Foxcroft countered with a 17-play, 97-yard drive capped off by Wade Witham’s 7-yard scoring run to give the Ponies a 12-0 lead with 4:17 left in the first half.

“That really was a statement,” said Withee, “because any time you can take it 97 yards and consume six or seven minutes it can really put a damper on a team, and it worked to our advantage.”

“We had an opportunity to make it 6-6 and just couldn’t put it in,” added Moore. “We had a couple of mistakes inside the 10 and it cost us. Those are mistakes that you can’t make against a good football team.”

Gould returned his second interception of the night 20 yards to the Rockland 4 midway through the third quarter, and sophomore Ian Champeon scored from 4 yards out on the next play. Rideout followed with the two-point conversion run to push Foxcroft’s lead to 20-0.

Foxcroft added two fourth-quarter touchdowns on a 1-yard run by Rideout and a 58-yard run by Adkins.

PONIES 32, TIGERS 0

Rockland (5-5) 0 0 0 0 – 0

Foxcroft (10-0) 6 6 8 12 – 32

FA – Rideout 8 run (kick blocked)

FA – Witham 7 run (kick failed)

FA – Champeon 4 run (Rideout rush)

FA – Rideout 1 run (kick blocked)

FA – Adkins 58 run (kick failed)

Rockland Foxcroft

First downs 11 21

Rushing att.-yards 34-76 55-354

Passing comp.-att. 4-9 1-6

Passing yards 69 7

Total yards 145 361

Punts-avg. 4-31.3 2-31.0

Fumbles-lost 3-2 0-0

Intercepted by 1 3

Penalties-yards 6-33 3-30

Rushing

Rockland: A. Weiss 23-61, S. Weiss 10-15, Boutot 1-0; Foxcroft: Adkins 10-126, Rideout 21-92, Provost 11-66, Witham 6-40, Champeon 6-33, Whittemore 1-(-3)

Passing

Rockland: A. Weiss 4-8-2-69, S. Weiss 0-1-1-0; Foxcroft: Nason 1-5-1-7, Gould 0-1-0-0

Receiving

Rockland: Boutot 2-46, S. Weiss 2-23; Foxcroft: Champeon 1-7

A- 600 (est.)