STANDISH — The Bonny Eagle High football team had an entire offseason to stew about giving up an embarrassing 61 points to Scarborough in last year’s playoff loss.
There was nothing to be embarrassed about Friday night.
The Scots’ defense held the explosive – but on this night also misfiring – Red Storm offense to a single quick touchdown. Bonny Eagle showed it has the strength to again be a Class A powerhouse with an 18-7 victory.
“The last time we played these guys they scored 61 points on us. To hold them to seven tonight was pretty amazing by our guys,” said Bonny Eagle Coach Kevin Cooper.
Scarborough started the game hot, intercepting Keegan Meredith on the second play and scoring three plays later on a Jarett Flaker 21-yard sweep around right end. From that point, Bonny Eagles’s defense and Scarborough’s own mistakes combined to switch the momentum.
Bonny Eagle picked up its initial first down on the final play of the first quarter, a 9-yard fake punt run by Zach Maturo.
“That was huge. When that happened the whole momentum that they had started to build was just lost,” Meredith said.
Meredith completed two touchdown passes in the second quarter. The first was a third-and-11 seam pass to Shaun Brilliant for 48 yards. The second was a strange play that put Bonny Eagle ahead, 12-7.
Center Garrett Gonyea snapped the ball over Meredith’s head (his only bad snap) but Meredith was able to pick up the ball. That near miscue apparently froze the defense because Chase Graves came wide open down the field. Meredith spotted him in time for a 36-yard touchdown with 1:56 left in the half.
In the second half, Bonny Eagle’s defense controlled the action.
In the second half, Scarborough lost 20 yards on its first two possessions, then was stopped on fourth down in scoring territory on its final two. Flaker’s speed and big-play ability was negated by double coverage on pass plays and excellent pursuit on his outside runs. The result was Flaker had only five touches from scrimmage for a total of 27 yards.
“We’ve got to block better for him. We’ve got to block the perimeter,” said Scarborough Coach Lance Johnson. “If the guys aren’t blocking the perimeter for him, then it’s a little harder just to force the ball to him.”
Maturo scored on a 3-yard run in the third quarter to make it 18-7.
“We’d lost to them three times in a row,” said senior nose guard Will Horton. “We knew we had a darn good chance to beat them and all the guys worked together.”
UPDATE: This story was updated at 9:55 a.m. on Sept. 14 to correct the last name of Bonny Eagle’s Will Horton.
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