MILLINOCKET – His team ran the table on the regular season, vaulted into the LTC Class C playoffs as the top seed, and still, on Tuesday, there was coach Tom Bertrand plotting a way to wring one more competitive edge out of his Stearns Minutemen.

You know the classic coach’s game. “Maybe if I …”

“What if we …”

On Friday night at Alumni Field, Bertrand’s version of Frankenstein’s monster – an absolute beast of a team he assembled, then has proceeded to progressively recobble as injuries cost him parts – once again terrorized the countryside.

Make that Foxcroft Academy.

Either way, the Minutemen trounced their opponents 35-14, moved to 10-0 on the year, and earned an LTC championship showdown with Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln next week in Millinocket. The Ponies finished 6-4.

The Minutemen, with a newer, even more improved offensive line, racked up 397 yards on the ground, including 239 on 19 carries by sophomore Justin Cummings, in the win.

And the move that resolidified the already solid line wasn’t exactly textbook.

On Tuesday, Bertrand shuffled the Stearns deck by putting former starting tight end Darrin Daniels at center – the only position he could play with a cast on a broken hand.

And then he showed his confidence in the 5-foot-11, 180-pounder.

“We decided to run right up his holes all night, or most of the night,” Bertrand said. “Justin had a lot of confidence in that.”

Cummings sprinted for 202 yards in the first half alone, and took off on touchdown jaunts of 13, 71 and 77 yards before intermission.

Meanwhile, the Stearns defense held the Ponies to only 28 first-half yards.

Foxcroft junior Brian Bellemare, who sat out the regular-season matchup with an injury, came back to rush for 69 yards on 17 carries.

But the total was deceiving: going into the Ponies final two possessions of the contest the swarming Stearns defense had held Bellemare to just seven yards on 10 carries.

“It’s smash-mouth football all the way,” said Bellemare, who pointed out that the Minutemen were trouble on both sides of the ball.

“It’s nothing fancy. It’s just sweep, iso [isolation], right down your throat,” he said. “If you can stop ’em, you stop ’em, and you win. But we didn’t do it today.”

Despite the play of the new center, the play that paid big dividends for Stearns early was one of Bellemare’s selections: the sweep.

Cummings capped the first Stearns drive by taking a toss on fourth-and-six and sprinting 13 yards into the end zone. Daniels’ first of five PAT kicks made it 7-0.

Bellemare got the Ponies even on the very next play, as he gathered in the kickoff and sailed 80 yards for a score.

Only two plays after that, Cummings struck again.

Quarterback Aaron Civiello ran the option to perfection, pitching the ball to Cummings just before being snowed under by Ponies, and the speedy soph did the rest, going 71 yards without having to break a tackle.

And after Civiello punched the ball into the end zone on a one-yard sneak early in the second, Cummings essentially put the game away on the next Stearns drive.

The dagger was a 77-yarder off right-tackle, that gave him 196 yards on 11 carries. It gave the Minutemen a 28-7 lead. And with 4:53 to go in the half, the defense had yet to allow a first down.

“The holes were huge,” said Cummings, crediting the line and fullback Ben Lankhorst. “I swear anybody could get touchdowns off those holes.”

Stearns got another 104 yards on just nine carries from senior reserve Bob Smart.

Minutemen 35, Ponies 14

Foxcroft (6-4) 7 0 0 7 – 14

Stearns (10-0) 14 14 7 0 – 35

S – Cummings 13 run (Daniels kick)

F – Bellemare 80 kickoff return (Bellemare kick)

S – Cummings 71 run (Daniels kick)

S – Civiello 1 run (Daniels kick)

S – Cummings 77 run (Daniels kick)

S – Smart 26 run (Daniels kick)

F – Bellemare 22 pass from Roberts (Bellemare kick)

Foxcroft Stearns

First downs 12 13 Rushing att. – yds 26-139 46-397 Passing cmp. – att. 10-20 3-10 Yards passing 85 89 Total yards 224 486 Intercepted by 0 1 Punts – avg. 5-33.2 2-30.0 Fumbles – lost 0-0 2-0 Penalties – yds 1-5 4-37

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Foxcroft: Bellemare 17-69, Roberts 1-(minus 7), Ronco 1-(minus 1), Talbot 3-48, Sands 4-30; Stearns: Cummings 19-239, Smart 9-104, Civiello 5-(minus 9), Lankhorst 8-43, Folsom 4-22, Sweeney 1-(minus 2)

PASSING – Foxcroft: Roberts 10-20-85-1; Stearns: Civiello 3-10-89-0

RECEIVING – Foxcroft: Bellemare 6-34, Talbot 1-11, Sands 2-19, Ronco 1-10; Stearns: Fling 1-53, Cummings 1-15, Cote 1-21