WINTHROP — For the seniors on the Winthrop/Monmouth football team Friday night was a shining moment in what has been a trying season.
Winthrop/Monmouth held Boothbay to minus-33 yards of total offense in the second half as the Ramblers coasted to a 31-8 victory over the Seahawks on senior night in front of a large crowd at Maxwell Field.
“It just shows that football is more to this community than just a game,” Winthrop/Monmouth senior Zack Phinney said. “I don’t know how many fans showed up and they probably played 40 or 50 years ago and they’re still coming back to watch kids like us play. It leaves me speechless.”
For the game, the Ramblers held Boothbay to just a staggering 28 yards of total offense — a result of strong Winthrop/Monmouth (2-4 Campbell Conference) defense and self-inflicted wounds (11 penalties for 90 yards). The Seahawks (2-4) were also down a number of players, including leading rusher Julian Aponte.
“At halftime we just made a couple of adjustments,” Winthrop/Monmouth coach Dave St. Hilaire said. “They were attacking our C gap (outside of the defensive ends). We made a couple of adjustments there, our D ends were coming up a little too deep and we want them to rip and bend in our defense.”
“Once we did that we blew some serious stuff up,” said senior defensive end Tyler Gosselin, who had a pair of sacks in the second half.
Phinney paced the Ramblers with 12 carries for 83 yards, a pair of rushing touchdowns and a 71-yard punt return for a score. Sophomore Bennett Brooks, meanwhile, hauled in a pair of touchdown passes from classmate Matt Ingram.
The Ramblers’ signal caller did not throw the ball a ton Friday night but was very effective when he did, completing 5-of-10 passes for 95 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
“That’s what we want him to do,” St. Hilaire said. “You don’t have to win the game, just run the offense.”
One of Ingram’s biggest completions of the game came in the closing moments of the first half with Winthrop/Monmouth — who jumped out to a 13-0 lead within the first seven minutes of the contest — clinging to a 13-8 advantage.
Boothbay had the ball at the Ramblers’ 43-yard line on fourth-and-2 with 45 seconds remaining and rather than punt it, the Seahawks elected to go for it. The play resulted in an interception by Nate Scott, who returned the ball to the 41-yard line.
“I went out to the huddle and I asked my team what they wanted to do there,” Boothbay coach Bryan Dionne said. “In that situation we’re on the road, we’re on senior night, a big situation and we were a bunch of guys down.
“…I thought we had a chance there to make a play and we didn’t make the play.”
After the play the Seahawks were whistled for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty, giving the Ramblers the ball at the Boothbay 44-yard line with 28.1 seconds left in the half.
Scott picked up a quick eight yards on a first-down rush and Winthrop/Monmouth called a timeout with 17 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing play Ingram rolled out to his right and waited patiently for the play to develop, ultimately hitting Dakota Carter in stride streaking from left to right for a 26-yard gain. Carter managed to get out of bounds to stop the clock with 6.9 seconds left and the ball at the 10-yard line.
Ingram then hit an open Brooks to the left on the very next play to give the Ramblers a 19-8 lead at half.
“We’ve done it a couple times before,” St. Hilaire said. “It was key because our sophomore quarterback really showed maturity on that.”
The late touchdown proved to be a back-breaker as Winthrop/Monmouth put the game away early in the third quarter.
Boothbay went 10 yards in the wrong direction on its first possession, and Phinney returned the Seahawks’ punt back to the Boothbay 36-yard line. Seven plays later he punched the ball into the end zone from three yards out.
The Seahawks’ next drive was not any better — netting minus-15 yards — and Phinney put the exclamation point on the Ramblers’ victory with a 71-yard punt return for a touchdown.
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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