The Morse defense gets set during Friday’s Eight-man Large North division regional semifinal against Camden Hills in Bath. Eli Canfield/The Times Record
BATH — Running hard, attacking the ball on defense, and making adjustments in the second half. The Morse football team put it all on display on Friday night in its eight-man large North division semifinal game against No. 3 Camden Hills at McMann Stadium in Bath.
Behind 256 yards on the ground and three total touchdowns from Gabe Aucoin and 125 yards and two touchdown passes through the air from quarterback Josh ter Mors, No. 2 Morse (6-2) dominated the Windjammers in a 56-36 victory to move on to the regional final next week against top-seeded Waterville at Drummond Field in Waterville.
“The line was making big holes all night,” said Aucoin, a senior. “We were just pounding it through, we knew what they liked to do on defense.”
The Shipbuilders had a good idea of what Camden Hills was going to do because Friday marked the third time the two squared off. The teams split the regular-season series.
Aucoin had touchdown runs of 77 and 21 yards and also caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from ter Mors as time expired in the first half to swell the lead to 18 going into the break.
Josh ter Mors of Morse is tackled by several Camden Hills players during Friday’s Eight-man Large North division regional semifinal in Bath. Eli Canfield/The Times Record
“That gave us such a big boost, I think it honestly might’ve been the dagger,” said ter Mors, who rushed for 95 yards including a 60-yard touchdown run late in the fourth. “I think the team really rallied around that. We went into halftime hyped up.”
ter Mors’ other touchdown pass came in the second quarter when he found sophomore Calin Gould for a 44-yard pass. Gould, who started in place of the injured Eliott Dorr, finished with three catches for 101 yards and a score.
“Tons of guys stepped up big for us tonight,” said Morse head coach Jason Darling. “We had a game plan that we wanted to execute and we did.”
Camden Hills finishes at 4-4.
“I think the biggest factor was that we went away from our gameplan in the second half,” said Camden Hills head coach Chris Christie. “We wanted to run the ball and had to go away from it due to the score. We made some mistakes that you can’t make when facing a good team like Morse.”
Hunter Norton led the Windjammers with 177 yards on 26 carries to go along with his four touchdowns. He had touchdown runs of 5, 56, 3 and 16.
“We knew they were going to key in on Hunter. Everyone has been doing that all season,” said Christie. “They did a nice job of taking away our other options and tackled well against our runners.”
Camden Hills quarterback Ryan Clifford threw the ball 11 times, completing six passes for 126 yards. Louis Mainella added 20 yards and a touchdown on the ground while catching three passes for 70 yards.
“Two years ago we didn’t even have a team,” said Christie. “The last time that we took the field before this season we had 18 kids on our roster, now we have 32 and only five of them are seniors. The arrow is trending in the right direction for us.”
The Shipbuilders fell to top-seeded Waterville 58-48 on Oct. 15 in Bath with the No. 1 seed on the line. It’s safe to say the Shipbuilders haven’t forgotten about that one.
“They’re a quality opponent, but we’re going to be ready to play them tough,” said Aucoin. “This is what it’s all about, we’re excited for the challenge ahead.”
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