WINSLOW — In the final minutes of a 28-14 victory, the Maine Central Institute football team was still fueled by a play that happened in the first half.
Trailing 7-6 just seconds before halftime, the Huskies let up on the final play as they expected Winslow to kneel out the clock. Instead, the Black Raiders ran the ball up the middle for a touchdown, leaving MCI stunned as they walked off the field moments later.
“We learned a big-time lesson right there,” said MCI co-head coach Tom Bertrand. “You don’t do that against Winslow, and you especially don’t do it against Winslow on their home field. They knew even before we had to say anything that that couldn’t happen again, and they were reflecting on it all the way to the final whistle.”
Motivated to avoid any other letdowns, MCI held Winslow without a point the rest of the way. Getting stronger as the game unfolded, the Huskies kept their feet on the gas and turned an eight-point halftime deficit into a two-score win in the regular season finale.
After MCI fumbled following a three-and-out by Winslow to begin the game, the Black Raiders capitalized by driving the short field and scoring on a 1-yard run from Jared Newgard to go up 7-0. MCI (3-5) controlled play for the rest of the quarter and scored a touchdown of its own early in the second on a 4-yard run from Braeden Kennedy.
After an MCI drive stalled at midfield in the dying seconds of the first half, though, Winslow (3-5) would stretch its lead in improbable fashion. Instead of a kneel-down or desperation pass, the Black Raiders put the ball in the hands of Liam Fortin, who sprinted 53 yards for a touchdown to put the Black Raiders up 14-6 with just a second remaining.
“It was definitely a thing where we thought they were going to run the clock out and let up on it,” Bertrand said. “It’s a tough thing to take, but it’s something you’ve got to learn from. We responded in the second half by playing the best we have all year as a team.”
MCI’s second-half tear began as Logan Washburn recovered a fumble in Winslow territory four minutes into the second half. Six plays later, Kyle Hall found Braydon Fitts for a 21-yard touchdown pass and added a successful pass to Fitts on the 2-point try to tie the game midway through the third quarter.
After stopping two Winslow drives into plus territory, MCI took the lead for the first time after a long punt return by Caleb Kennedy set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Fitts with 6:28 to play. The Huskies then forced a three-and-out from the Black Raiders and iced the win with 1:56 to go on a 21-yard run from Drew Shorey.
Hall and Fitts had a solid connection all day offensively with the senior quarterback finding his No. 1 wideout all over the field for big plays. Hall completed 13 of 21 passes for 175 yards with Fitts catching six of those passes for an impressive 114 yards.
“Me and Kyle, we’ve been working all year at this, and we just executed,” said Fitts, who also made a key play on MCI’s final drive as he pushed the pile forward for a first down on fourth-and-1. “We both just came out and did what we needed to do.”
Braeden Kennedy added 62 rush yards on 14 carries for MCI, which won for the third time in four games after an 0-4 start to the season. Newgard was 7 of 17 for 114 yards passing and added 19 carries for 109 yards on the ground for Winslow.
The result was a stark contrast to the last meeting between the Huskies and Black Raiders, a 64-6 Winslow win in last year’s Class C North quarterfinals. Like the late first-half touchdown they overcame, that was also something Fitts and teammates had on their minds as they finished strong for a vital Big 11 Conference win.
“They were marked on the calendar for our whole entire year,” Fitts said. “For my senior year, we wanted to beat Winslow so bad, so we were definitely thinking about that. We wanted it, and we played awesome.”
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