WALES — The fans were roaring while players on both the Winthrop/Monmouth and Oak Hill football teams frantically screamed orders to each other, creating a noisy, rambunctious din that blanketed every corner of the Oak Hill High School field.

And yet, Stacen Doucette’s voice rang out crisp and clear, as if he was the only person on the scene.

“Hey!” the Oak Hill coach yelled out. “Somebody’s going to have to make a play!”

The command was carried out to the letter. Caleb Treadwell intercepted a pass from Ramblers quarterback Keegan Choate on the goal line with only seconds to go, allowing the Raiders to sneak out with a 28-26 victory — and almost certainly save their season in the process.

“It was just amazing. There’s so much that’s just going through me right now,” Treadwell said. “There was just so much adrenaline. I was telling our guys ‘This is it, just focus on the play.’ … We did (need this). It was a great game.”

And the victory was well-earned. Oak Hill (3-4) trailed 13-7 at halftime, then fell behind 19-14 and 26-22 in the second half. But the Raiders scored on back-to-back drives in the fourth quarter, the second of which gave them a 28-26 lead with 5:25 left in a game they had to win — with four straight losses and a ninth-place spot in the Class D South Heal points coming in, a loss would have almost certainly cost them a playoff shot.

Advertisement

“There was a lot on the line,” Doucette said. “I thought the kids, not just (at the end) but the whole week of practice, a whole year of dedication, a whole summer’s worth of 7-on-7, there was a lot on the line. This is a good win for our program.”

And yet, when it seemed most secure, it seemed to be slipping away. Oak Hill forced a turnover on downs on the Ramblers’ apparent last-chance drive, but a three-and-out forced the Raiders to punt with just over a minute to go. Oak Hill players gathered around the rolling ball to try to bleed more seconds off the clock, only to see Winthrop/Monmouth’s Cameron Gaghan race in, grab the ball and sprint down the left sideline to the Raiders 18-yard line with 43.7 seconds to play.

“The punt before, I could see once the ball started to roll around on the ground, they all started to move away,” Gaghan said. “I knew if I got another chance I was going to pick it up and go. I knew if I messed up, coach (Dave St. Hilaire) would have reamed (me) out, but it was high-risk, high-reward.”

Suddenly, the Raiders were in trouble, and it became critical when Choate (12-of-26, 247 yards) found Gaghan on third-and-10 for 13 yards down to the 5. Two incompletions followed — a big hit by Ethan Richard broke up the potential go-ahead score — and Choate then looked for Jevin Smith in the left side of the end zone, only to see disaster strike when Treadwell cut in front and snagged the pass for the clinching interception with 7.6 ticks left.

“I undercut it, I caught it and I said ‘Oh my God, I caught that!’ ” Treadwell said. “Everyone just came around me, and I’m like ‘What’s happening?’ Then I’m like, ‘I just saved the game!’ ”

St. Hilaire said the plan was to try a field goal for the win on fourth down, if only the drive had gotten that far.

Advertisement

“One thing I didn’t tell Keegan was ‘Hey, if you don’t get this, we’re kicking the field goal,’ ” he said. “I didn’t tell him ‘Don’t turn the ball over.’ He made big plays all day, and he’s been making big plays all year.”

Both teams had plenty of success finding big chunks of yardage through the air all game long. Choate hit Greg Fay (four catches, 98 yards) for a 35-yard score on the Ramblers’ first drive of the game, while Oak Hill answered with a 51-yard touchdown pass from Gavin Rawstron (9-of-21, 187 yards) to Bailey Drouin on the fourth play of the second quarter to tie the game at 7. A 25-yard pass from Choate to Gaghan set up the second Ramblers score, a 2-yard run by Abram Sirois to make it 13-7 with 4:17 to go in the half.

In the second half, as the defenses began to tire in the unseasonable heat, the game turned into a shootout. Oak Hill struck with 6:58 left in the third when Darryn Bailey, a force all game with six catches for 115 yards, brought in a deep pass from Rawstron and shook out of a tackle for a 35-yard score, making it 14-13 Raiders.

The Ramblers (3-4)  responded. Choate hit Fay for 37 yards to break into Raider territory, then finished the drive with a 2-yard run of his own to put the Ramblers up 19-14 after a missed two-point conversion with 4:17 to go.

“He’s a solid kid,” St. Hilaire said. “He’s great under pressure, and we trust him with anything.”

Oak Hill answered in the fourth quarter on Cruz Poirier’s 7-yard run with 9:24 to go, making it 22-19 after an impressive two-point hookup from Rawstron to Bailey, but the Ramblers struck back on their very next play from scrimmage when Choate hit Ryan Baird in stride down the left sideline only 22 seconds later for a 55-yard touchdown pass and a 26-22 advantage.

Advertisement

Continuing a second-half theme, that lead wouldn’t last either, as Poirier — who ran 23 times for 119 yards, gaining 102 after halftime — broke a 21-yard run to put Oak Hill up 28-26 with 5:25 remaining.

“I think the teams started to get tired,” Doucette said. “I think both defensive fronts started getting tired. We do rotate a little bit, which started to help a bit in the second half.”

The Raiders had something left for a stop with the game on the line, however. And then just enough for when they needed yet another.

“It was an old-fashioned football game,” Doucette said. “Every week, I feel like we’re getting better in a lot of facets of the game, and building confidence.”


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.