HAMPDEN – After two straight losses, the Hampden Academy football team was looking for a confidence boost.

It took nearly three quarters, but the Broncos found it thanks to Shawn Smith and Nolan Turner.

The two hooked up for a 55-yard touchdown reception with less than a minute left in the third and Hampden’s defense held the rest of the way en route to a 7-0 victory over MDI Friday night at the Weatherbee Complex.

It was the first home game for the Broncos since they opened the season with a win over Belfast.

“Playing in front of our fans helped a lot and we needed this game to get back on track,” quarterback Smith said. “We needed to bounce back from losing two games.”

MDI was on a two-game winning streak going into the game. Both teams moved to 2-2.

“This game meant so much,” said Turner. “We couldn’t go 1-3 [after] the fourth week, we just couldn’t.”

Smith connected on four of six passing attempts for 87 yards and rushed for 46.

The Smith-to-Turner reception came one play after coach Harry McCluskey’s Broncs called a timeout on third-and-19. Smith fielded a low snap, rolled to his right and found Turner downfield.

“I told [Turner] I was looking for him. I had throws play-side all game and I wanted to try back-side. He had his hand up, so I just threw it to the corner.”

Turner said he was well covered by MDI defensive back Terrence Jones.

“I could hear his footsteps,” Turner said. “As soon as I caught it, he was on me. They were good, fast DBs. Nothing like how we practiced for. We couldn’t match their speed and that’s why we ran it so much tonight.”

Hampden ran 47 rushing plays.

MDI coach Mark Shields said the Trojans tried to get ready for Turner.

“They made a big play there,” MDI coach Mark Shields said. “Their quarterback throws a nice ball and [Turner’s] a good receiver. We were working all week to defend him. He ended up getting behind us and he made a nice catch.”

That was the longest run or pass completion for either team.

The second longest came in the closing seconds when MDI quarterback Tyler Crawford lofted a 43-yarder to Terrence Jones.

That put the Trojans at Hampden’s 36-yard line with 16.8 seconds left. MDI sprinted down the field to have Crawford spike the ball in order to stop the clock, but his pass on second-and-10 was incomplete and the game came to an end.

Although neither team was able to put up big numbers on the ground, Hampden controlled the line of scrimmage and maintained possession for long stretches. The Broncs chewed up almost five minutes on a 64-yard drive that ended with their fourth fumble of the game – created by MDI’s Jonathan Hall and picked up by Jones – but the Trojans went three-and-out on the ensuing possession.

Hampden couldn’t do anything on its next possession, but Turner picked off his second Crawford pass of the game.

“Even if you drive down and lose it, it still builds confidence,” Smith said. “We had a big pick and everybody was excited, running hard, blocking hard.”

The Broncos stalled again but gave MDI just one minute to orchestrate its final drive.

MDI’s Odane Gaynor had a game-best 87 rushing yards on 17 carries.

“We couldn’t run the ball at all against them tonight,” Shields said. “They were moving some guys around, but really they just played hard up front. Their guys were flying around. They did a heck of a job.”

Crawford threw for 104 yards on 7-of-19 passing, but the Trojan receivers had at least four dropped balls.

“That’s gonna happen,” Shields said. “Kids don’t mean to drop footballs. It wasn’t about that tonight. I think Hampden just wanted it more than we did. … We knew they were fast, they have some athletes and they play hard. They played hard tonight.”

BRONCOS 7, TROJANS 0

MDI (2-2) 0 0 0 0 – 0

Hampden (2-2) 0 0 7 0 – 7

HA – Turner 55 pass from Smith (R. Lindemann kick)

MDI Hampden

First downs 6 14

Rushing att.-yards 27-81 47-157

Passing comp.-att. 7-19 4-6

Passing yards 104 87

Total yards 185 244

Punts-avg. 6-38.0 5-44.4

Fumbles-lost 1-1 4-2

Intercepted by 1 2

Penalties-yards 3-20 7-45

Rushing

MDI: Gaynor 17-87, Dunn 6-6, Crawford 4-(minus-12); Hampden: Turner 14-58, Smith 19-46, Becker 10-43, Jenkins 4-10

Passing

MDI: Crawford 7-19-2-104; Hampden: Smith 4-6-1-87

Receiving

MDI: Jones 2-52, N. Hall 4-39, J. Hall 1-13; Hampden: Turner 2-65, R. Lindemann 2-22

A-500 (est.)