AUGUSTA — Take the handoff; bowl them over up the middle; outspeed them down the sidelines; score; rinse; repeat.
It was all the Lawrence football team needed to do Friday night in a dominant win over Cony at Fuller Field. The Bulldogs ran for an astonishing 483 yards in a 40-7 victory to spoil the Rams’ homecoming and earn a key Pine Tree Conference victory.
“That’s who we are; we run the ball,” said Lawrence’s Colton Carter, who led the way on the ground with 163 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries. “We wanted to pound the ball right at them and make their defense tired, and we did a pretty good job of that.”
In addition to Carter’s strong performance, Lawrence also got strong efforts on the ground from Gavin Wilson (11 carries, 98 yards, touchdown), Gaige Martin (three carries, 65 yards), Michael Hamlin (11 carries, 67 yards, touchdown) and Maddox Santone (eight rushes, 39 yards, touchdown).
Although Lawrence (3-1) fumbled the ball away on its opening drive, the Bulldogs immediately stuffed Cony to get it back at its own 34. Three plays later, the visitors were in the end zone as big runs by Martin and Carter set up a 10-yard touchdown scamper by Hamlin with 6:56 left in the first quarter.
Lawrence went up 14-0 on a 6-yard run by Wilson on the second play of the second quarter. Cony (1-3) immediately answered as Parker Morin hit Parker Sergent for a 28-yard touchdown pass, but touchdown runs by Santone and Carter would give the Bulldogs a 27-7 lead at the break.
Lawrence’s Michael Hamlin celebrates with teammates after he scored a touchdown against Cony during a football game Friday in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
“We just got a great push from our offensive line — all the credit goes to them because they put in work all week and played great — and we kept running it and running it,” Hamlin said. “After they scored, we knew we had to score right back, so that was big for us going into halftime.”
Cony had a chance to make it a two-score game again on the opening drive of the second half but fumbled on first-and-goal. Lawrence recovered the fumble for a touchback and drove the length of the field, going ahead 33-7 on a 5-yard run by Carter with 6:54 remaining in the third quarter.
“It looked like Anderson (St. Onge) was going to make it in, but their linebacker got his hand on the ball and ripped it away,” said Cony head coach B.L. Lippert. “We were going to onside kick and try to get it back because we knew we weren’t going to stop them very often, but we put it on the deck, and from there, it was ugly.”
Carter, who scored Lawrence’s final touchdown from 2 yards out on the first play of the fourth quarter, had much of his success up the middle. Hamlin, who threw just five passes on the evening, gashed the Rams on quarterback keepers, and Wilson racked up most of his yardage sprinting past Cony defenders down the sidelines.
Just as it did two weeks ago in a win over Falmouth, Lawrence succeeded in forcing and capitalizing on turnovers. In addition to following the fumble recovery in the end zone with an 80-yard scoring drive, the Bulldogs also drove 63 yards for a score after a forced fumble in the first half.
“Our ability to get turnovers has been great,” Hamlin said. “We’ve been able to get them when we need them, and it really helps out on offense. When you’re able to turn it over and then go down and score, that’s a huge turning point, and we did it twice.”
The three turnovers stifled a Cony offense that had established some success in the air through the connection of Morin and Sergent. Morin completed 19 of 25 passes for 184 yards and the touchdown pass to Sergent, who finished with 12 catches for 107 yards.
“Parker Morin is going to be a really good quarterback — in fact, he already is,” Lippert said. “We’ve put a lot on his plate for a sophomore, and he’s handled it really well. … With Lawrence playing seven in the box against a five-man front, we had to throw the ball on the perimeter.”
Indeed, Lawrence’s stout run defense made Cony one-dimensional as the home team rushed for just 34 yards. St. Onge had just 8 yards on five carries for the Rams, whose No. 1 running back, Conner Heidle, ran for 4 yards on a single carry after suffering an injury last week against Messalonskee.
For Lawrence, the win was the third in a row after a 21-6 loss to Bangor to start the season. The Bulldogs have outscored opponents 101-15 over those three games to establish some momentum that will be much-needed heading into next week’s cross-class showdown with a dominant Leavitt team.
“Week 1, we probably weren’t game-ready, and we’ve made a lot of progress since then to make sure we are game-ready,” said Lawrence head coach John Hersom. “I think that’s shown for us in a lot of aspects. Our kids are working hard, and we’re making great adjustments.”
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