Oak Hill knew it had a special player coming into this season in senior Alex Mace, but it appears the Raiders’ do-it-all offensive standout has saved his best performance for his final season in Wales.

Mace had another huge game in Friday’s 48-8 win over Winthrop/Monmouth, totaling 215 yards and four touchdowns. This season he has amassed 722 total yards and 11 touchdowns in just four games.

“I’ve seen Alex as a big-play potential player,” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said. “He’s a team player and he’s had a real good season so far.

“…He’s a big part of our team success but we talk about everybody. He’s a selfless player and he’s a captain and he’s a team leader.”

Part of the reason for Mace’s huge numbers has been an increased role in the offense due to the absence of classmate Kyle Flaherty. The Raiders’ primary ball carrier has not played since aggravating a hamstring injury in the first half of a 14-6 loss to Dirigo on Sept. 13.

“He’s getting better, but he’s still day-to-day,” Doucette said. “It’s literally going to be a game-time decision.”

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Oak Hill (3-1) hosts Old Orchard Beach at 1:30 p.m., Saturday.

• • •

This past weekend marked the midpoint of the regular season and so far it is pretty clear the race to the playoffs in Pine Tree Conference B will likely come down to the final two weeks.

“There’s a log jam there and some games have to be played before anything can be sorted out,” Gardiner coach Matt Burgess said.

Brunswick (4-0) has emerged as the favorite to take the top spot in the conference, and a win over Mt. Blue on Friday would all but assure itself a spot in the postseason.

From there, however, nothing is very certain in PTC B.

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Lawrence suffered its first loss of the season this past Friday — falling 30-13 against Cony — and the Bulldogs have some tough games remaining on their schedule, including at Brunswick and at home against Messalonskee.

The Rams, Gardiner, Mt. Blue, Skowhegan and Messalonskee are all 2-2, meaning at least one good team will be spending November watching — rather than playing — football. Hampden and Brewer are by no means out of it, but will have a more difficult road to the postseason after starting 1-3.

“I don’t think anybody outside of Brunswick has clearly separated themselves,” Cony coach Robby Vachon said. “Six teams get into the postseason and right now it looks like everyone has a shot.

“There are three teams that aren’t going to get in. You just have to battle every week and hope for the best.”

• • •

Speaking of scheduling, Gardiner’s luck finally ran out when it comes to traveling.

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The Tigers traveled an hour and 15 minutes for their 28-25 win at Hampden Academy this past Friday, and this weekend will make almost the exact same trip for Friday night’s game at Brewer.

“We haven’t had to go to Hampden since 2011 so I guess that is karma coming back,” Burgess said. “Last year we didn’t have to go up there at all. The scheduling gods giveth and they taketh away.”

The Tigers will not be the only PTC B team dealing with a lengthy drive though. Messalonskee will have about a two-hour ride from Oakland to South Berwick to take on undefeated Marshwood on Friday night.

• • •

To borrow a line from the great Yogi Berra, it was like deja vu all over again for Kents Hill on Saturday.

In the Huskies 25-16 loss to Hyde (ME) on Sept. 23, Kents Hill scored a touchdown and a safety to take a narrow lead at halftime before falling off the pace in the second half.

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Those post-halftime struggles remained Saturday, as the Huskies held an 8-6 lead over Dexter School (Mass.) at halftime after scoring a touchdown and a safety. That score held until the fourth quarter, where the Huskies simply “ran out of gas” according to coach Steve Shukie in a 30-14 loss.

“It was almost a mirror image of last week’s first half,” Shukie said. “It was freaky.

“…We really were playing 13 guys most of the game. The guys played really, really hard. We just ran out of gas in the end.”

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley


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