Shelley drives Wells to 36-6 win over Marshwood

WELLS — The field was muddy, the rain at times driving, but that still didn’t slow down the Wells Warriors or running back Drew Shelley.

Shelley, a senior, rushed for 223 yards and four touchdowns as the Warriors handed the Marshwood Hawks their first loss of the season with a 36-6 homecoming win.

Two of Shelley’s touchdowns were of 60 yards or more, both in the first half, that broke the game open for Wells (4-1).

His first TD came with 5:45 to play in the second quarter when he swept to the left and beat three Marshwood (4-1) defenders for a 60-yard run that gave Wells a 16-6 lead.

He did it again on the Warriors’ next drive, this time breaking off a 62-yard run with 3:32 left in the second quarter for a 22-6 Wells’ lead.

“My (offensive) line was tremendous tonight,” Shelley said. “They created a lot of space for me and I was able to take advantage.”

He gave Wells a 30-6 lead with :30 remaining in the first half, but this time he only needed three yards on an end-around for the score.

Shelley punctuated his night and the scoring for the game in third quarter. With 7:20 remaining in the third, he broke loose one more time, this time for a 20-yard run that gave the Warriors a 36-6 lead.

“I think they (Marshwood) were keying in on Dante (Fanning),” Wells coach Tim Roche said. “That’s OK, because it worked for us. Drew took advantage of what he saw and just had a great game.”

The Warriors started the scoring in the first quarter as Jacob Moody busted off a 45-yard run for a 6-0 lead with 10:22 to play.

Wells forced a three-and-out on Marshwood’s first possession and took advantage. It drove the ball 66 yards and punctuated the drive with a Joey Spinelli 24-yard field goal.

Marshwood’s only score came in the second quarter when the Hawks’ Morton Liam busted into the end zone on a 4-yard run, cutting the lead to 10-6 with seven minutes to play in the quarter.

The Wells defense limited Marshwood to 123 total yards, and turned the Hawks over twice. The niftiest turnover came in the third quarter when Fanning dove about three yards, sprawled out and snagged a Marshwood pass that ricocheted off of a Marshwood players’ helmet and went 10 feet into the air before falling into Fanning’s hands.

“It was a good overall game tonight,” Roche said.

Wells has now won three straight since losing its first game in two years when it lost to Westbrook 28-20 on Sept. 7.

Since then it has beaten Gray-New Gloucester 43-0 and Spruce Mountain 50-0 before Friday night’s game.

“We didn’t panic after that loss,” Roche said. “Maybe the community did a bit, but we knew we would be all right. The kids were mad after that loss, and they should be, but we moved on from there.”

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