GARDINER — The Waterville Senior High School football team accomplished what few Pine Tree Conference Class B teams could during the regular season: Contain Gardiner running back Alonzo Connor.
Oh, how things changed in the postseason.
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Connor rushed for a game-high 281 yards and five touchdowns — at least one in each quarter — to power No. 3 Gardiner past No. 6 Waterville 47-27 in a PTC B quarterfinal Friday night at Hoch Field.
Gardiner will play in Farmington against No. 2 Mt. Blue (8-1) in the PTC B semifinals next Friday.
“We played a full four quarters,” said Connor, who was held to under 100 rushing yards in the regular-season meeting against Waterville. “We were ready.”
Gardiner (7-2) piled up 534 yards of total offense, including 201 from quarterback Dennis Meehan. Meehan threw for 60 yards, completing four of his eight passes, and rushed for 141 and two scores.
“We wore them down,” Gardiner senior defensive lineman Eddie Donnell said.
Aidan Fitzgerald threw for 234 yards and two touchdowns to lead Waterville (4-5). JT Whitten rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown as well. He also caught two touchdown passes from Fitzgerald.
It just wasn’t enough to beat the Tigers, who led 20-13 at the half but used two third-quarter touchdowns to pull away.
Connor rushed for a 31-yard touchdown just three minutes into the third to give Gardiner a 26-13 lead. Two plays coming about four minutes later doomed the Panthers.
Waterville marched to the Gardiner 16-yard line but came up short on a fourth-and-1 play. The Tigers took over on downs, and Meehan rushed for an 83-yard touchdown on the ensuing play to put the game out of reach.
“We played as hard as we could but they were better,” said Waterville coach Frank Knight, whose team dropped its ninth straight decision to Gardiner. “We fought to the end. Gardiner is a football town. This is a tough place to come in and win.”
Added Fitzgerald, who threw touchdown passes to Whitten and Aaron Saucier in the fourth quarter: “It’s a very emotional end for some of the guys. Very frustrating. But we worked hard all game.”
Gardiner trailed 7-0 on a Whitten 2-yard touchdown run but bounced back with two late scores in the first quarter. Meehan rushed for a 32-yard score before Connor gave the Tigers the lead for good with a 33-yard scoring run off tackle with 3:52 left in the quarter.
Connor later rushed for touchdowns on runs of 7, 21, 28 and 54 yards.
“I had a lot of holes,” Connor said. “The line played great in front of me. I felt great.”
Added first-year Gardiner coach Matt Burgess: “We’re happy to have another week to get back to work. I’m pleased with how our line played and how our defense played. I was happy to get Dennis (Meehan) loose a few times, too. We played well.”
Bill Stewart — 621-5640
bstewart@centralmaine.com
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