WALES — Kyle Flaherty and Alex Mace are the two-headed rushing attack for the Oak Hill football team.
They proved it Saturday afternoon.
The duo accounted for 312 of the Raiders’ 323 yards and all six Oak Hill touchdowns in a 40-6 homecoming win over Boothbay.
“I call them fire and ice, Alex being fire and Kyle being ice,” Oak Hill head coach Stacen Doucette said. “They have very different running styles. Sometimes certain plays feature the other (back), but it’s very tough. Kyle is a slasher, he’s always going forward. You never get a clean shot. Alex is a vicious runner, where he’s always trying to run through people.”
Each running back had 17 carries. Flaherty rushed for 182 yards with three touchdowns, and Mace 120 yards and three touchdowns.
The win snaps a two-game losing streak for the Raiders (4-2), who started the season with three straight wins.
“We needed a bounce-back win after those two losses, so this was great,” Flaherty said.
Defense also played a role for the Raiders, particularly in the first half, as they held the Seahawks to 26 yards.
“We watched film, and we kept practicing and practicing all week so we could get it just perfect, so we could shut them down just like we did,” Mace said.
The Raiders scored their first touchdown on their second series of the game when Flaherty capped a 73-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown run. The extra point by Adam Merrill gave Oak Hill a 7-0 lead.
Oak Hill scored on its next possesion. An 18-yard punt return by Kyle Tervo and a personal foul penalty by Boothbay gave the Raiders the ball on the Seahawks’ 13-yard line, and Flaherty scored on a 5-yard touchdown run two plays later. Merrill’s extra point gave Oak Hill a 14-0 score.
Mace followed with touchdown runs of 12 yards and 5 yards, giving Oak Hill a 27-0 lead at the half.
“Our line was playing great, they were giving us great holes for Kyle and I to run through, it was great,” Mace said.
Boothbay answered back on the first drive of the second half, marching 61 yards, before capping the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run by fullback Jason Maddocks. After a failed 2-point conversion, the Raiders held a 27-6 lead.
But the Raiders answered on the next possesion, going 71 yards on five plays with Mace scoring on a 7-yard run. Merrill’s extra point brought Oak Hill’s lead to 34-6.
Flaherty added the knockout punch with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, finding a huge hole before sprinting down the sideline for a 54-yard touchdown run for the 40-6 lead.
“We had Alex (Mace) and Luke (Washburn) go through the hole on that one,” Flaherty said. “Alex made a great block and Luke made a block. I wasn’t even touched, it was a great play.”
Boothbay (3-3) was hurt by penalties throughout the game, accumulating 60 penalty yards. The Raiders, however, were flagged once, a personal foul penalty in the fourth quarter.
“Our expectations are to always play with no penalties,” Doucette said. “We coach practice that way, and the kids came through today.”
Maddocks led Boothbay with 76 yards rushing on 15 carries.
Dave Dyer — 621-5639
ddyer@centralmaine.com
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