WINTHROP — Turnovers and a late Winthrop/Monmouth touchdown put Old Orchard Beach in a foul mood at halftime of Friday night’s Western D Campbell Conference game at Maxwell Field.
The Seagulls saved their venting for the second half, regaining the lead two plays into the third quarter and dominating the rest of the way for a 27-8 win.
Senior quarterback Bryan Roberts ran for two touchdowns and threw for another and the Seagulls shut down the depleted Ramblers in the second half.
“We were frustrated,” said Roberts, who rushed for 105 yards on 17 carries and five of nine passes for 46 yards. “We dominated that first half. Then they just hit us with a home run play. But second half, we capitalized. We dominated the whole second half.”
Old Orchard Beach (2-0) out-gained Winthrop/Monmouth (0-2) 167-76 in the second half, collecting 10 first downs to the Ramblers’ 5. Most of the Ramblers’ yardage came on their final drive, which ended on downs.
“We stepped up on defense,” Roberts said. “Preseason we were worried a little bit. We had a few weak spots that we worked a lot on in practice. First week against Traip we stepped up. This game we stepped up. We’ve only allowed one touchdown both games.”
The Ramblers went into halftime with the momentum after Matt Ingram recovered a muffed punt at the Seagulls’ 21 with 1:26 left in the first half. After a first down, the Ramblers recovered their own fumble to set up fourth-and-goal from the 15 with six seconds to go. Ingram dropped back and threw to Dakota Carter (seven catches, 96 yards) on a fade route in the right corner of the end zone for a touchdown. Zack Phinney ran in the two-point conversion for the Ramblers’ first and only lead.
“We should have been up two or three scores at half and we were down a point,” said OOB coach Dean Plante, who saw his team stopped short on two drives deep into Rambler territory in the first half. “We were brutally honest (at halftime), and it’s the second week in a row our kids came out in the second half, took the first drive and made a statement.”
It was a quick statement, requiring only runs of 13 and 33 yards, the latter to the end zone by Andrew Graves, to put OOB back in front. Roberts’ two-point pass to Zach Hirst made it 15-8.
Already playing without their top two-way lineman, Jeremy Mihalakis, due to medical reasons, the Ramblers lost senior running back Zack Phinney (six carries, 31 yards) to an apparent shoulder injury four plays into the second half.
Winthrop/Monmouth punted and OOB marched 61 yards on its next series, helped by a 15-yard facemask penalty by the Ramblers. Roberts scored from nine yards out running off of right tackle.
“I can’t do anything without my line there,” Roberts said. “I’ve got the feel for running the ball. I was a running back from third grade all the way up to sophomore year. I can make reads and stuff like that. The O-line took care of the D-line and it was just me against the secondary.”
“We need to be more physical,” Winthrop/Monmouth coach Dave St. Hilaire said. “We need to lower our shoulder pad level. We just need to work on the techniques and stay with the techniques. When we get behind we tend to get away from those techniques, and when you get away from technique, it’s not a good thing.”
Roberts capped the scoring with a nine-yard pass to Eric Hogan in the fourth quarter.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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