OAKLAND — As high school football offense becomes more and more about spread formations, Messalonskee High School is a throwback. The Eagles run the wing-T offense, and they run the ball approximatley 95 percent of the time.
What the Eagles lack in fancy schemes, they make up for in results. Messalonskee runs the ball, and runs it well. In Friday night’s Pine Tree Conference Class B quarterfinal game against Mt. Blue, they ran it better than they have all season.
Messalonskee gained 516 of its 559 yards on the ground, and that led to a 48-28 win. No. 4 Messalonskee (5-4) was the only team to beat Brunswick in the regular season, and will play at No. 1 Brunswick (7-1) next week. No. 5 Mt. Blue ends the season at 4-5.
Jack Bernatchez ran for 293 yards and five touchdowns for the Eagles. Bernatchez scored four touchdowns and ran for 182 yards in the first half, helping Messalonskee build a 28-14 halftime lead. Bernatchez knew early on that his team would have a good night running the ball, describing the offensive line as “beasts.”
“The first drive. We came out, and there were huge holes every play,” Bernatchez said.
“This offense is geared toward angles, and we took advantage of our angles and traps. That’s what we try to exploit every week. We only ran two formations, I think, and three plays, maybe,” Messalonskee coach Brad Bishop said.
Early in the regular season, Mt. Blue defeated Messalonskee, 14-7. The difference this time around, Bishop said, was experience.
“We’re older. We’re still young, but we’re more experienced. We’re injury free, thank God, and we played hard. The kids dig down, they play hard,” Bishop said.
Mt. Blue took a 7-0 lead when Nate Pratt-Holt returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. After Messalonskee fumbled the ball away at the Mt. Blue 19 on its first posession, the Eagles settled down. Bernatchez scored on runs of 9 and 10 yards to give Messalonskee a 14-7 lead after a quarter, and added scoring runs of 9 and 13 yards in the second quarter.
“We were finishing this week. The last time we played them, we lost two goal line drives. This time we converted,” Bernatchez said.
“When you give up 48 points, you don’t win a heck of a lot of football games. It’s that simple. We tackled very, very poorly,” Mt. Blue coach Jim Aylward said.
Colby Dexter caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Jake Dexter early in the third quarter to push Messalonskee’s lead to 34-14. Mt. Blue quarterback Ryan Pratt threw a pair of touchdown passes in the second half, a 7-yarder to Pratt-Holt and a 78-yarder to Christian Whitney, but the Cougars could never slow down Messalonskee’s run game.
Jake Dexter scored on a 1-yard run in the third quarter, and Bernatchez scored his fifth and final touchdown on a 3-yard run early in the fourth.
Colby Dexter ran for 116 yards for Messalonskee, while Caleb Chavarie added 62 yards.
“Their offense, they run the same five plays, and if you can’t get off the block and you can’t tackle, you lose,” Aylward said.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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