FAIRFIELD — There’s plenty the Lawrence football team has done well in emerging as one of the Pine Tree Conference’s top teams, but its physicality in the run game has been the most prominent.
The Bulldogs exerted that physicality once again in their biggest game of the season — and with a clean performance coupled with an error-strewn one from their opponents, they earned a victory that will put teams across Class B on notice.
Lawrence rolled its way to a 41-6 victory over previously undefeated Messalonskee in Friday’s anticipated Class B North showdown at Keyes Field. The Bulldogs rushed for 344 yards behind a dominant offensive line to throw a wrench into the regional playoff picture with one week of the regular season to go.
“We’re tough, we work hard in practice, and we grind it out,” said Lawrence offensive lineman Cam Dostie. “That’s the kind of team we are. We want teams to know that when they come to Friday night on Keyes field against the Lawrence Bulldogs, you can expect to get popped in the mouth.”
Lawrence forced four Messalonskee turnovers, including three interceptions with the Eagles driving in Bulldogs territory. The home team outgained the visitors 371-285 overall on the night and kept its offense out of the end zone with Messalonskee’s lone score coming on special teams.
The game started just fine for Messalonskee (6-1), which turned Lawrence over on downs and drove into plus territory on a long pass from Tatum Doucette to Drake Brunelle. Yet after Preston Roy intercepted Doucette in a deflection, the Bulldogs took a 6-0 lead with 4:58 left in the first quarter on a 22-yard Colton Carter run.
Lawrence (5-2) went 65 yards on five plays on its next drive, scoring on a 2-yard run by Gavin Wilson late in the first quarter. The Bulldogs then capitalized on a Braden Littlefield interception with a 7-yard run by Michael Hamlin three minutes before half, and after Doucette fumbled on the Eagles’ next play, Carter’s second touchdown of the night made it 27-0.
“We’ve really prepared for this,” Carter said. “We’ve worked hard every week, and it was nice being able to come out like this against a good team and run the ball on them. That’s what we wanted to do. … We wanted an outcome like this, we knew we had to take it from them, and we got on top.”
Messalonskee had opportunities in the second half, driving into the red zone twice. Yet the first possession, a 15-play, 78-yard drive, resulted in a turnover on downs, and the second saw Colby Nadeau intercept Doucette and take the ball all the way to Eagles territory, where Carter would score his third touchdown from 14 yards out.
“They were really well-prepared, and they came out with a really good game plan,” Messalonskee head coach Blair Doucette said of Lawrence. “They were tough up front, and we made some mistakes, and whenever we made those mistakes, they took advantage of it and went down and scored.”
Lawrence ball carrier Colton Carter tries to pull away from Messalonskee defender Mitchell Marquis during a Class B North game Friday night in Fairfield. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
Immediately following Carter’s touchdown with 10:19 to play, Messalonskee found the scoreboard as Garrett Card took the ensuing kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown. Lawrence, though, would finish the game in running time as a 5-yard Jayden Burnham touchdown run with 5:53 left provided the final points of the night.
Carter led the way for Lawrence on the ground with 140 rushing yards and the three touchdowns on 21 carries. The Bulldogs’ impressive ground performance also saw Wilson rush for 76 yards on 11 carries, Hamlin go for 67 yards on five carries and Gaige Martin gain 48 yards on eight carries.
Tatum Doucette was 12 of 27 for 128 yards and the three interceptions and added 10 carries for 74 yards on the ground for Messalonskee, which was down a key weapon with running back Sam Dube sidelined. Drake Brunelle aided the sophomore Doucette in the receiving game, catching six passes for 88 yards.
“We had some things we were trying to do that we thought would work, and we couldn’t really tell why it wasn’t hitting,” said Blair Doucette, who played under Hersom at Messalonskee in the mid-1990s. “It’s one of those games where you really want to go back and watch the film to see exactly what they did to us.”
The win was the fifth in the past six games for the Bulldogs, whose only loss during that span came two weeks ago against a juggernaut Leavitt team. Since falling 21-6 to Bangor in Week 1, Lawrence is averaging 36.8 points per game with its past four victories all coming by more than 30 points.
The key to this one, Dostie said, was Lawrence’s major edge in the turnover battle. In a game that wasn’t all that lopsided in total yardage, forcing four turnovers while not having a single giveaway itself turned what could have been a somewhat tighter game into a runaway victory.
“We knew we’d have a hard time stopping Doucette through the air, so we had to tighten up on our coverage and get some pressure on him and force him into some tougher throws,” Dostie said. “I’m just proud of our guys. We were ready, and we came to play.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
