READFIELD — The Maranacook and Oak Hill football teams do not meet during the regular season this fall, but if they happen to face each other in the Campbell Conference Class D playoffs, expect a clash of two very different, yet effective philosophies.

The Black Bears and Raiders met in an exhibition contest Friday night at Ricky Gibson Field of Dreams in what was a confrontation between speed and power.

Oak Hill led 16-0 at the half when both starting lineups were in the game and went on to a 24-0 victory largely on the heels of some speedy playmakers, particularly Dalton Therrien. The senior quarterback completed 9-of-11 passes for 106 yards and a touchdown, and also rushed four times for 27 yards.

“We have team speed and we do have some size too,” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said. “Offensively we can do a little bit of both, I think we can be physical and we can be fast.

“Dalton has always been comfortable (with the offense). He’s an experienced athlete, an experienced football player, he has composure and it’s his job to run the team. He does it every day.”

Therrien effectively managed the Raiders’ attack, at times slowing it down and grinding away with the double wing, while at others spreading out wide in a no-huddle attack.

“We’re very fast, pretty much interchangeable in the slot position,” Therrien said. “Wide receiver, we’re pretty good there too. Running backs, we’ve got a handful of them that are all pretty good.”

Maranacook, meanwhile, ran its offense out of the double wing and relied on its size to grind yards away.

“It’s awesome (running behind the offensive line),” Black Bears running back Zach Lacasse said. “I love usually running the ball to the left, though, because Dillan Chicoine is like 6-4, 330. I think we have one of the biggest lines in the league, to be honest, and all of them can move pretty well.”

The Black Bears had just four possessions in the first half — the final of which began with just 23 seconds remaining in the second quarter — of which the first was the most successful.

After stopping Oak Hill at the Maranacook 10-yard line, the Black Bears consistently moved the ball down field behind a power run game and one 27-yard completion from quarterback Kyle Morand to tight end Levi Emery.

A 10-yard sack on second down at the Oak Hill 27-yard line ultimately derailed the possession, but nonetheless Maranacook showed it was capable of building sustained drives.

“Overall I think we did pretty well,” Maranacook coach Joe Emery said. “We had a lot of passion, we got a little better, we saw some stuff that’s going to help us improve and I think we met most of our goals tonight.”

• • •

Winthrop/Monmouth also played the one Campbell Conference opponent they will not see during the regular season — Telstar — on Friday night in an exhibition contest. But with only 16 players dressed for the Rebels, there was only so much the Ramblers could get out of it in a 49-0 victory.

“It was pretty one-sided. We did whatever we needed to do and whatever we wanted to do,” Ramblers coach Dave St. Hilaire said. “We’ve got to correct some things on film. They weren’t quite as experienced as us.”

St. Hilaire did note that he was impressed with his team’s swarming defense, as well as the overall team speed that the Ramblers showed. They will certainly need it this Friday, as they open the season against quarterback Tyler Halls and a Lisbon team that figures to be in contention for the Campbell Conference title.

“They’ll give us all we can handle and then some,” St. Hilaire said. “They’re big and strong with a good athlete at the quarterback position.”

• • •

Sophomore kicker Cam Dunlop is new to the Cony football team this fall, but he has not wasted much time in making an impression.

At a practice last week, Rams head coach B.L. Lippert set up a proposition that if Dunlop made a 50-yard field goal, the team would get out of conditioning drills for the day.

“We set him up at 50 thinking he wouldn’t make it,” said Lippert, who was promptly proven incorrect by the sophomore. “He probably had three or four more yards on that.

“I was going to give him two tries. I think he earned a few fans that day for sure.”

Lippert said he would prefer not to put Dunlop in too many high-pressure situations if he can avoid it, but that it was good to know the team had some options if faced with the prospects of a field goal from inside of 40 yards.

• • •

Gardiner opened its preseason slate with a 12-6 loss to Spruce Mountain on Friday night with some encouraging results, according to Tigers head coach Joe White.

“We had a little better luck executing,” he said.

White said his team played well, but had a few untimely drops could have resulted in touchdowns.

Staff writer Travis Lazarczyk contributed to this report.

 

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley