WINSLOW — In a battle between the Winslow High School football team’s speed and Nokomis’s size, Winslow’s speed won, decisively. The Black Raiders scored 48 seconds into the game, and never were challenged, taking a 54-0 win at Gerry Poulin Field.
“I thought we did great against their size. They have a pretty big line,” said Winslow running back Dylan Hapworth, who ran for a game-high 207 yards on 12 carries, scored a touchdown and kicked a 41-yard field goal.
Led by 6-foot-4, 280 pound guard Jacob Nichols, Nokomis had a clear size advantage on the line. Once the Black Raiders got the ball into the hands of quick backs like Hapworth and Nate St. Amand, that size advantage didn’t matter. After Nokomis tried opening the game with an onside kick, Winslow needed just three plays to reach the end zone. St. Amand started the drive with a 29-yard run to the Warriors 20. After Hapworth went 12 yards, quarterback Bobby Chenard scored on an 8-yard run.
“We definitely established (the run) real fast. The linemen did a great job picking up blocks. We were undersized this entire game. Our linemen out-quicked them, out-hustled them and pounded it to them,” Chenard said.
“I think our overall team speed helped us against them, but their size is scary,” Winslow coach Mike Siviski added.
After forcing a Nokomis punt, Winslow mounted a six-play, 71-yard scoring drive, all on the ground. Hapworth had runs of 23 and 28 yards on the drive, which ended with St. Amand’s (four carries for 56 yards) 6-yard touchdown run.
The option play worked over and over for the Black Raiders, with Chenard pitching the ball to Hapworth. Midway through the second quarter. Chenard waited as long as he could before pitching, and just as a handful of Warriors reached him, Chenard got the ball to Hapworth, who went 75 yards untouched for a score and a 29-0 lead.
“That one, I felt they were all biting down on me, so I got it out to Hapworth,” Chenard, who also threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Trenton Bouchard, said. “He was yelling for it. He wanted it.”
Defensively, Winslow held Nokomis to four first downs through the first three quarters, the time each team’s varsity played. Noah Kershner had 31 yards on 10 carries for the Warriors.
“Just a good quality team,” Nokomis coach Matt O’Connell said of Winslow. “Better than us. In spurts, we showed we do good things, but they do things better.”
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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