FARMINGTON — Momentum is one pass that slips through a defender’s fingers, only to find the receiver in the corner of the end zone.
With the score tied in the final minute of the first half and Mt. Blue facing a fourth-and-goal at the Gardiner 11, Mt. Blue quarterback Jordan Whitney thought he had made the mistake of the game when his pass to Cam Sennick in the end zone was short and in the hands of Gardiner’s Alonzo Connor, who had nothing but 100 yards of open space to the Cougar end zone.
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The ball slipped through Connor’s hands, however, right to a waiting Sennick, who made the catch that put the Cougars on top for good. Mt. Blue shut out the Tigers in the second half and took the 35-14 Pine Tree Conference Class B semifinal win.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to have a little luck,” Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin said. “(Connor) catches that there, I don’t know who catches him.”
No. 2 Mt. Blue (9-1) will face No. 1 Leavitt in the conference championship game next week. No. 3 Gardiner ends the season at 7-3.
“I was, ‘Uh-oh,’ ” said Whitney, who threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more. “Then I was like, ‘Luck’s on my side.’ ”
“It’s a momentum changer,” Gardiner coach Matt Burgess said of the play.
The play gave the Cougars a 21-14 lead and ended a Gardiner rally. After Mt. Blue took a 14-0 lead on Whitney’s 7-yard touchdown run and a 13-yard pass to Izaiha Tracy, the Tigers answered. First, when quarterback Dennis Meehan scored on a 1-yard plunge, and then, after Eddie Donnell recovered a Tracy fumble at the Mt. Blue 23, Connor scored on a 2-yard run. When Meehan hit Matt Hall with the 2-point conversion pass, the game was tied at 14-14 with 4:06 left in the first half.
Gardiner moved the ball deep into Cougar territory on the opening drive of the second half, but Meehan threw an interception to Whitney at the 4-yard line.
“It was just Cover 2, and I played it right,” Whitney said.
The Cougars marched 96 yards in nine plays, culminating in a 3-yard touchdown run by Whitney.
Meehan (100 yards passing, 65 running) threw another pick in the second half, this time to Tracy, before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with an injury. The Tigers also lost Donnell to a leg injury in the second quarter, and senior Justin Pottle was ejected in the third quarter.
Mt. Blue lost senior lineman Dustin Zamboni to an apparent knee injury in the third quarter.
Connor led the Tigers with 127 yards rushing on 28 carries. Tracy led the Cougars with 86 yards on 13 carries, while Chad Luker added 80 yards on nine carries, all in the second half, and scored the game-icing touchdown with 1:33 left.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
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