READFIELD – Junior tailback-quarterback George Keefe rushed for 115 yards and all three touchdowns and the John Bapst defense did the rest as the Crusaders snapped a 41-game losing streak with a 22-6 victory over the host Maranacook Black Bears Saturday.

“It was unbelievable,” said Keefe. “The whole team was ecstatic on the bus and we were all singing on the bus on the way home. We couldn’t remember it all, but we got through it all right.”

Bapst quarterback Keith Nason suffered a knee injury on the last play of the game and is expected to miss the next game.

John Bapst of Bangor is now 1-1 on the season.

“It’s crazy,” said Keefe. “It feels real good and it’s great that we don’t have to go four years without winning a game.”

The Crusaders took the lead for good in the fourth quarter when Alex Desmond sacked Black Bear quarterback Kyle Jarvis in the end zone. Keefe added two scoring runs to turn the lights out.

“I think our defense is what really did it for us in the game,” Keefe said. “Getting that safety really got us going. That was the first lead I think we’ve had in four years,”

Bapst gained more than 250 yards overall while holding Maranacook under 100 in the game.

John Bapst (1-1) 6 0 0 16 – 22

Maranacook (0-2) 0 0 6 0 – 0

JB – Keefe 2 run (pass failed)

M – Swett 87 interception return (kick blocked)

JB – Safety (Desmond tackled Jarvis in end zone)

JB – Keefe 2 run (Nason pass to Keefe)

JB – Keefe 29 run (kick failed)

Cheverus 6, Bangor 0

At Portland, Dominic Pascarelli’s touchdown reception off a screen pass just before halftime was the difference in the ballgame as the Cheverus Stags edged the Rams in an East-West Class A crossover game.

“I don’t know if we played that poorly. It’s just that we didn’t make big plays,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett. “We didn’t really do anything wrong, we just couldn’t get into the flow.

“They were very good at controlling the tempo of the game. We like a quicker tempo in a game and they were able to slow it down.”

The scoring drive came on the heels of a defensive stand in which Cheverus defended a fourth-down pass attempt from the Stags’ 6-yard line and forced an incompletion.

The Stags then drove 94 yards on 14 plays – the key ones being a 44-yard run by Kyle Bourgoin, a 21-yard gain by Pascarelli, and an 18-yard pass from Andrew Schober. The drive ended with Pascarelli’s catch of the pass about three yards away from the end zone and subsequent dive into the end zone under a small pile of tacklers after having seemingly been stopped a yard short.

“They were tough up front and they wore us down a little bit,” Hackett said. “They were giants and I think because EL [Edward Little, last week’s opponent] was small and quick, it was quite a different look for us. We ran out of gas and didn’t have a lot of breaks.”

Converted split end Mike Prentiss had 25 carries for approximately 80 yards.

Bangor outgained Cheverus in total yards, 250 to 190.

Bangor (1-1) 0 0 0 0 – 0

Cheverus (1-1 0 6 0 0 – 6

C- Pascarelli 11 pass from Schober (pass failed)