STANDISH — With all the weapons in the Thornton Academy football team’s offensive arsenal, senior lineman and co-captain Seth Beyea keeps his job description simple.
“We just have to work, so they can do their work,” Beyea said.
Friday night at Bonny Eagle, Beyea and his brothers on the Thornton offensive line won more battles than they lost, giving the Trojans’ talented skill players the time and space to do their thing, and the result was a 35-14 Thornton win.
The Trojans are 5-0. For Bonny Eagle, now 3-2, it was a rare second consecutive loss. The Scots fell at Oxford Hills last week.
“Based on the last three weeks against three good offensive teams, we’re not where we need to be defensively,” Bonny Eagle Coach Kevin Cooper said.
Aside from taking a knee to run for one play going into halftime, Thornton scored on each of its four possessions in the first half. The Trojans started with Hayden Whitney’s 3-yard touchdown run just 1:50 into the game for a 7-0 lead.
After stopping a long Scots drive at their own 34, the Trojans needed just two plays to reach the end zone again, this time on a 49-yard pass from Jack Emerson to Anthony Jones, who sprinted down the left sideline for the score.
Just when fans might start believing Thornton’s offense is all quick strikes, the Trojans ground out a 10-play, 52-yard scoring drive, culminating when Emerson stretched across the goal line on third-and-3 to give the Trojans a 21-0 lead.
“It was a grind up front. We knew it would be,” Beyea said.
Thornton went back to the quick strike formula next, this time with Emerson hitting a wide open Isaiah Jones down the middle for a 40-yard touchdown pass to push the lead to 28-0 with 5:17 left in the first half.
“In high school football, the ability to score quick is a huge thing to have. We’ve had that in the past, but we don’t really have that this year,” Cooper said.
Bonny Eagle answered with 6.5 seconds left in the half. Mitchell Havu dove to catch a 19-yard pass by Terrell Edwards, cutting the Scots deficit to 28-7 at the break.
The Scots scored again on the first play of the fourth quarter, with Aidan Walcott catching a 22-yard pass from Edwards. But the Trojans regained momentum on the ensuing drive, icing the game with Alex St. John’s 33-yard touchdown run.
The key to slowing down the Scots was stopping the run, Beyea said, and for most of the game the Trojans did just that. Thornton held Bonny Eagle running back Zac Oja to 53 yards on 14 carries.
“Bonny Eagle is a running team. We knew that’s what they were going to do,” Beyea said.
Whitney gained 95 yards on 12 carries for the Trojans. Emerson ran for 47 yards and passed for 141.
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