FAIRFIELD — The Lawrence football team had little momentum, no lead and seemed a bit out of sync in the first half of its Pine Tree Conference Class A semifinal game against Messalonskee on Friday.
“We had no panic,” Lawrence coach John Hersom said. “We talked about wanting to come out and win the third quarter.”
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The Bulldogs did just that, breaking a tie game with a pair of scores en route to a convincing 28-13 victory before a packed house at Keyes Field.
Top-seeded Lawrence (10-0), which advanced to the PTC A title game for the first time since 2007, snapped a two-game playoff losing streak on its home field.
Shaun Carroll rushed for a game-high 192 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries to power the Bulldogs, who will play No. 2 Bangor (8-2) in the conference championship game at 7 p.m. Friday night at Keyes Field.
“It was a huge win,” Carroll said. “We stepped up and handled adversity. We did it. We got it going.”
No. 4 Messalonskee (6-4) battled Lawrence tough in the first half before unraveling a bit in the third.
Sam Dexter caught a 51-yard touchdown pass from Travis St. Pierre and returned a kickoff 79 yards for a score to lead the Eagles. St. Pierre threw for 128 yards, completing 7 of 13 passes.
“Lawrence is a great football team,” St. Pierre said. “We gave it our best. They wanted it more in the second half. But this is the kind of atmosphere you love. You’ll never forget this.”
Lawrence went ahead for good when it pinned Messalonskee inside its own 10-yard line on a terrific punt from Alex Leathers.
Dexter called for a fair catch but opted to let the ball go with about 7 minutes left in the third. The Eagles gained just 4 yards and were forced to punt. Lawrence took over at the Messalonskee 29-yard line, and three plays later Anthony Sementelli rushed for a 15-yard touchdown with 5:49 left in the quarter. Chad Martin kicked the extra point and Lawrence pulled ahead for good, 14-7.
“They capitalized on the field position,” Dexter said.
Added Messalonskee coach Wes Littlefield: “We should have fair caught that punt. That pinned us in. We gave them field position, and they go up 14-7. Then it was 21-7 just a few minutes later. That was tough.”
Lawrence used a seven-play, 47-yard drive to surge ahead 21-7 in the closing seconds of the third quarter. Leathers capped the drive with a 35-yard touchdown pass to Spencer Carey, who slipped behind the defense and made a nice running catch down the sideline.
Carey also rushed for an 11-yard touchdown early in the first quarter.
“We needed to play a full 48 minutes, and we did,” Carey said. “We really stepped up.”
Carroll rushed for an 82-yard touchdown with 10:48 left in the fourth quarter to help the Bulldogs goup 28-7.
Although Dexter returned the ensuing kickoff for a score, it was too little, too late for Messalonskee.
“We kind of ran out of time,” Littlefield said. “The clock was against us. We made a couple mistakes, and they took advantage. We played even with them in the first half but not in the second.”
Lawrence finished with 345 yards of total offense compared to 179 for Messalonskee.
“We defintely wanted to rebound from last year,” said Hersom, whose Bulldogs lost to Brunswick in the quarterfinals last season. “We really wanted to get this one and go from there.”
Bill Stewart — 621-5640
bstewart@centralmaine.com
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