MADISON — Waterville needed a nice bounce-back performance after last week’s loss to Winslow. After a few hiccups in the first half, that’s what the Purple Panthers received Friday night.

Cam Thomas and Danny Pooler combined for six touchdowns, five of them in the second half, as Waterville pulled away for a 42-19 Eastern C football victory over Madison.

“(At halftime) coaches talked to us,” Thomas said. “They gave us a challenge to come out here in the second half and punch these kids in the face — not actually punch them in the face, but come out strong. That’s what we did. We grind teams down. That’s what we do.”

Thomas carried the ball 24 times for 246 yards and scored four touchdowns. Pooler gained 54 yards and rushed for two touchdowns on his 13 carries.

Waterville, which clinched a first-round bye in the Eastern C playoffs with the victory, lost the ball on downs inside the Madison 30-yard line twice in the first half. The Panthers still led 7-6 at the break, thanks to Thomas’ 49-yard touchdown run. Madison’s first-half score came on a 25-yard pass from Chase Malloy to Cody Soucier.

The Panthers went right to their smash-mouth style to open the second half, with eight straight running plays covering 63 yards. The last seven were covered by Pooler for a 14-6 lead.

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Madison shook off that score, as Malloy hit Nick Morales over the middle. Morales broke two tackles and went all the way for a 61-yard score. The Bulldogs misfired on the two-point conversion, but still trailed only 14-12 with 7:49 to play in the third quarter.

Madison couldn’t sustain that offensive pace, but Waterville could. The Panthers scored on each of their next four possessions, and led 42-12 less than 12 minutes later. Pooler went over on a 1-yard plunge, and Thomas scored on runs of 4, 6, and 54 yards.

In five second-half drives, Waterville’s first-team offense ran 26 plays for 240 yards — an average of nearly nine yards per play. Things were going so well that on one play, Thomas broke into the secondary, fumbled the ball, and it popped into the arms of wide receiver Daniel Jolin on the fly. Jolin ran another 10 yards, and the Panthers scored three plays later.

“Our line works as hard as anybody out there on the field,” Waterville coach Matt Gilley said. “They got to work, and you saw what happened second half — we put a bunch of points on the board. We couldn’t be any more proud of those guys. We’ve been riding them all season. They didn’t let down today. They’ve earned this week off that we have coming up.”

Madison freshman Sean Whalen completed the scoring with a 3-yard run in the fourth quarter. Waterville’s line also dominated on defense, as Madison’s first team had 18 running plays for a total of 22 yards.

“It was obviously a tale of two halves,” Madison coach Scott Franzose said. “I liked the way we matched up defensively. I thought we set the tone and we did everything we needed to do to contain their run game. They’ve got a lot of athletes. They’re a big, physical run game. Second half, I think they adjusted well. They came and ran downhill on us, and we kind of let them punch us in the mouth.”

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Madison still might have a chance at a home playoff game if Old Town can defeat Belfast on Saturday. Waterville, meanwhile, hopes to make good use of its week off.

“We’ve got a few guys banged up,” Gilley said. “(Also), refining what we do. Today, we saw some of the same mistakes that showed up last week at Winslow that you can’t do. They’re head-scratchers, but the good thing about that is they’re very, very fixable. That’s exactly what we’ll be doing this week, is fixing those head-scratchers so we’re just sharp going into that playoff week.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Matt_DiFilippo


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