KNOX — For the Mount View High School football team, Thursday night’s game at Larrabee Field was a chance to get back into the hunt for a Little Ten Conference playoff spot. For Orono, the focus was get out without any more injuries.
The Red Riots played the game with just 13 healthy players in uniform, and simply wasn’t enough to stop the Mustangs. Mount View scored barely a minute and a half into the game, and cruised to a 28-0 win.
As a safety measure, the second half was played under running time. Even so, with 1:14 left in the fourth quarter, the game was ended. Mount View is now 2-2, while Orono is 0-4.
“I’m proud of the kids. They played hard,” Orono coach Bob Sinclair said, adding his team played with two starting offensive lineman. “They didn’t quit. We had 13 bodies. We tried to play the best we could.”
The game was played Thursday because Mount View High School’s parking lot is set to be used for Common Ground Fair parking all weekend, making the school unable to host any events.
The Mustangs’ offense opened the game in a shotgun spread formation, and sophomore quarterback Brady Moulton looked right at home throwing the ball. After a 32 yard completion to Kyle Noble set the Mustangs up first and goal at the Orono 9, Moulton scored on a bootleg run to the right sideline for a 6-0 lead with 10:26 left in th first quarter.
Mount View made it 13-0 with 4:07 left in the first, when Moulton hit Garret Smith (six catches for 78 yards) for a 19-yard touchdown.
Moulton, who sat the fourth quarter, finished the game with 224 yards passing — all in the first half — and 77 yards rushing.
“I was seeing open spots and my receivers were running great routes,” Moulton said.
The play of the game came in the final minute of the first half. On second and 6 from their his own 15, Moulton fired a pass downfield to Jack Valleau, who was covered well at midfield. Valleau leapt over the Orono defender to catch the ball at the 50, and ran the rest of the way untouched for the 85 yard touchdown as a 21-0 halftime lead.
Moulton added Mount View’s final touchdown with 4:18 left in the third on a 2 yard run.
Jacob Farnham ran for 29 yards on seven carries for the shorthanded Red Riots.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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