ORONO — At times this season Dalton Therrien has put the Oak Hill High School football team on his back and carried it to victory in the fourth quarter.

In the Class D championship Friday night at Morse Field at Alfond Stadium, Therrien dealt Maine Central Institute the knockout punch with a 48-yard touchdown run with 1:16 remaining in a 34-21 win for the Raiders, yet he needed some help to get there.

Levi Buteau and the Oak Hill defense was more than happy to answer the call.

The Raiders would not have won the game without Therrien — who had 422 total yards and five touchdowns — but it was the Oak Hill defense and a pair of forced turnovers from Buteau in the final five minutes that sealed it for the Raiders.

MCI quarterback Greg Vigue rushed inside the Oak Hill 40-yard line with less than five minutes remaining with the Raiders’ Brendan Tervo hanging on in attempt to bring him down.

Vigue would have had the first down until Buteau charged in from right to left, lowered the shoulder and popped the ball free. There, Austin Goucher was in position to recover the ball with 4:37 to play in the game.

In last week’s win over Lisbon, Therrien carried the ball nine straight times to run out the final five minutes on the clock and punch the Raiders’ return trip to the Class D title game.

This time, however, it was not on the cards as the Raiders went for it on fourth and 1 at midfield on its ensuing drive. Therrien could not handle the snap and was stopped for a 1 yard loss to give the ball back to MCI with three minutes remaining at the Oak Hill 49 yard line.

The undersized linebacker came through again for Oak Hill, though, as Buteau picked off Vigue with 2:11 to play to give the ball back to the Raiders. Three plays later Therrien sealed it with the long touchdown.

Defensively, Oak Hill had one of its finest performances of the season despite giving up 21 points. It forced seven turnovers in the game and had seven tackles for a loss.

Buteau finished with four and a half tackles — one and a half for a loss — to go along with the forced fumble and interception. Connor Elwell made 10 tackles and Brian Thorpe made nine — two of which for a loss.

Darryn Bailey made a pair of interceptions in the first half to go along with seven and a half tackles, while Therrien and Austin Goucher had seven and a half and six tackles, respectively.

Garrett Gile had four and a half tackles, while Nick Aripez had a strong second half at nose guard with four and a half as well.

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley