KENTS HILL — It was not enough Jekyll and too much Hyde for the Kents Hill football team Saturday.

A late first-half flurry allowed the Huskies to take a three-point lead into intermission against visiting Hyde School at Harold Alfond Athletics Field, but third-quarter struggles sealed their fate in a 25-16 loss to the Phoenix.

“We got too hotheaded during halftime, we got too comfortable with the lead and we just didn’t finish,” Kents Hill’s Luke Arsenault, a junior wide receiver/safety from Manchester, said. “We didn’t keep playing during the second half and shot ourselves in the foot.”

Kents Hill fell behind by a touchdown early but got a lift when Raph Major-Dagenais blocked a punt deep in Hyde territory with 5:14 remaining in the opening half. The Husky nearly managed to fall on the ball in the end zone, but it squirted just out of his grasp and out of bounds for the safety.

The Huskies made good use of the additional possession though, as Arsenault hauled in a 25-yard running back pass from Major-Dagenais to give Kents Hill a 10-7 lead at the break after a successful two-point conversion.

Out of the intermission the Huskies could not keep momentum on their side, however, as a 58-yard pass from Toby Taradeina to Aman Wisdom set up a 1-yard touchdown plunge from Taradeina.

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Two plays later the Huskies gave the ball back on an interception, and Hyde once again answered as Gabe Bernstein scored on a rush from 17 yards out to give the Phoenix a 22-10 lead.

“All of a sudden we turn around and they’ve scored twice, and we’ve only had the ball for seven plays,” Kents Hill coach Steve Shukie said. “It was a great decision on their part to defer and come up with a plan to start the third quarter.

“Really it took the wind right out of our sails. We had some momentum going into the half and I thought we really had them. We stopped them cold most of the second quarter and third quarter they ran hard and came out refreshed.”

Kents Hill tried to put together a late push to get back in it trailing 25-10 when Arsenault caught his second touchdown of the game — this time from 5 yards out — with 2:44 remaining in the game. The Huskies tried for two, but Major-Dagenais was stopped just short of the goal-line to keep it a two-score game and more or less clinch the win for Hyde.

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley


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