WELLS — This time the underdog Oak Hill Raiders couldn’t hang around long enough to pull an upset.
Undefeated Wells High was too strong — Payton MacKay and Tyler Bridge combined for nearly 400 rushing yards and seven touchdowns — and Oak Hill quarterback Gavin Rawstron suffered a game-ending wrist injury on the first play from scrimmage.
The combination resulted in a 54-6 victory for top-seed Wells in a rainy Class S South regional final.
It was the 27th straight win for Wells (11-0), which has yet to lose in Class D.
“This is what we do and we’re going to work our butts off to get to this level and so far it’s worked,” said Wells coach Tim Roche.
The Warriors will face Saturday’s Foxcroft Academy-Bucksport winner in Friday’s Class D state championship in Orono.
Wells won the Class C title in 2016 and beat Foxcroft in the 2017 Class D championship.
“We know the feeling now, we’re experienced so that helps a lot and knowing how to stay calm and finish off the season,” Bridge said.
No. 7 Oak Hill finishes 5-6 after pulling off overtime playoff upsets against No. 2 Lisbon and No. 6 Madison.
Wells’ Payton MacKay (34) fends off Oak Hill defenders as he runs toward the goal line for a touchdown during the first half of the Class D South football final on Friday night in Wells.
Bridge entered the game with 2,011 yards and 33 touchdowns on the ground. He contributed again — four touchdowns and 121 rushing yards — but it was MacKay’s night to shine.
Switched to fullback in midseason when Matt Tufts had a knee injury (Tufts is back in action and dominated at defensive end), MacKay has seven touchdown runs and over 460 rushing yards in the past two games. Friday night he showed stength, balance on a slippery field and breakaway speed going for 269 yards (219 in the first half) on nine carries with TD runs of 30, 59, and 50. His first run of the game went for 73 yards.
“They moved me to fullback and everything has just been working perfectly,” said MacKay, who showed excellent strength, balance on the slippery field and breakaway speed. “The line is making the holes. I see it quick and I hit it.”
Rawstron (over 2,500 yards total offense) was injured at the end of a 32-yard run. Oak Hill reached a first-and-goal at the 6 but a fumbled exchange on second down was recovered by Wells’ Nate Curtis.
“Wrist injury. It’s probably broken,” said Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette. “It impacted the game plan a lot. We did the best that we could. We just lost to a good team.”
Wells built a 20-0 lead before Samuel Lindsay put OH on the board with a 1-yard run. With Rawstron out, Lindsay took over as quarterback running out of the Wildcat. He had 20 carries in the first half.
Wells responded with TD runs from Bridge (3 yards) and MacKay (59) before the half and then put the game away by scoring on its first two plays of the second half — a 50-yarder by MacKay and, after an Oak Hill fumble, a 32-yarder by Bridge.
Jonah Potter added a 4-yard scoring run to make it 54-6 before the third quarter was finished.
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