READFIELD — The Maranacook football team may not have played its best game of the season Friday night, but the Black Bears bested two opponents.
Ellsworth/Sumner, and themselves.
Maranacook topped the Eagles 44–12 in an Eight-Man Large semifinal at Ricky Gibson Field of Dreams. The Black Bears (9-0) will meet the winner of Saturday’s game between Mt. Ararat-Yarmouth for the right to play in the state’s first 8-Man championship.
Garit Laliberte led the way for Maranacook, rushing for 139 yards on 19 carries, scoring three touchdowns. He also threw for 57 yards and a score.
Maranacook scored on its first three possessions of the game, highlighted by a 13-yard scoring toss from Laliberte to receiver Isac Philbrook. But the Black Bears struggled in the second quarter on defense, giving up touchdown runs of 57 and 33 yards to Ellsworth running back Connor Crawford. Maranacook entered halftime with a 22-12 lead.
Crawford led the Eagles (3-6) with 189 yards rushing on 31 carries.
“The first half (offensively) is usually a test and we’re feeling the waters, figuring out what the defensive weakness is,” Laliberte said. “We just need to stick to the game plan, run the ball out.”
But the Black Bears took over in the second half. Laliberte scored twice on the ground — including a scoring run of 43 yards — to help lengthen the lead. Maranacook’s defense also stepped up in the second half, and sealed the game late in the fourth quarter, when Philbrook intercepted a Crawford pass.
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