WINTHROP — Given the relative state of their programs, it was just about a foregone conclusion that unbeaten Winthrop/Monmouth would make short work of Maranacook in the Class D Campbell Conference regular season finale for both teams Friday night.

The Ramblers confirmed the outcome with 34 points in the first quarter en route to a 54-6 victory a week after clinching the conference title for the first time in three years. Winthrop/Monmouth (7-0) won’t play again until November since next week is its bye week and it also earned a bye for the first round of the playoffs.

Maranacook (0-7) will play an exhibition next week against Boothbay, which dropped from varsity to club status this fall due to lack of players. The Black Bears, who suited just 19 players Friday night, are in a similar situation, although coach Bill Getty said better times lie ahead.

“The future is bright,” Getty said. “We’ll have more kids on the field than we did this year. There’s no uncertainty whatsoever about Maranacook’s football future.”

Winthrop/Monmouth needed just 13 plays in the first quarter to score five times. Senior running back Alec Brown scored on runs of 27 and 9 yards and sat down at the end of the first quarter after just three carries.

“It’s big (to be) Campbell Conference champions,” Brown said. “But at the same time we all know there’s still a lot more to do. Everybody knows what that is, which is the gold ball.”

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The Rambler defense held the Black Bears to negative yardage through three quarters and didn’t allow them into Winthrop/Monmouth territory until junior Connor Firth broke off a 68-yard scoring run with under three minutes left. As strong as the defense looked, it will be a point of emphasis over the next couple of weeks.

“We’ve got to be able to stop power football,” Winthrop coach Dave St. Hilaire said. “The teams to beat out there, a lot of them run power football. We’ve been pretty good with it in spots but we need to be more consistent with it.”

The Ramblers racked up 210 rushing yards in the first half while quarterback Matt Ingram added three completions for 43 yards and a touchdown.

“We came into this knowing we had to take it like a regular game and execute,” Ingram said. “Just because they weren’t the best doesn’t mean that we had a chance to take a break.”

Nate Scott scored on a 45-yard run in which he reversed fields and Andrew Pazdziorko added a 25-yard run later in the quarter set up by Tyler Cote’s interception. Maranacook played without top running back Drew Davis and quarterback Skyler Boucher who broke his collar bone last week. Ingram passed 12 yards to Avery Amero and Cote added the conversion kick to make it 34-0 at the end of the quarter. Runs of 7 yards by Cote and 11 from Kane Gould wrapped up the first half which ended with the Ramblers up 47-0. Cameron Gaghan returned a fumble recovery for 23 yards for the Ramblers final score in the third quarter.


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