Portland’s football team was looking forward to this.
Playing four-time Class B champion Marshwood for the first time since last year’s decisive playoff loss. And Friday evening at Fitzpatrick Stadium, the Bulldogs got their long-awaited taste of revenge.
Emphatically.
Kennedy Charles ran for 151 yards and three touchdowns and Andrew Brewer added a pair of scores as Portland scored 14 points in the second quarter and tacked on 18 more in the third en route to a 40-8 victory, improving to 3-3 in the process.
“Everyone saw what happened last year and we didn’t want it to happen again,” said Charles. “But I feel like we only got half of the job done because we will see this team again.”
Portland drove to the Marshwood 1 to start the game, but the Hawks held. The Bulldogs then got the ball right back and went on top, as Charles hit Remijo Wani for 26 yards to set up a 1-yard run by Charles on a keeper. Charles added a two-point conversion pass to Wani to make it 8-0.
Marshwood needed just 12 seconds to answer, as Emmanuel Poe broke away for a 65-yard score and Ty Cougler tied it with a two-point conversion rush.
Portland’s defense then set up the offense for the go-ahead score, as an interception by Aidan McGowan put the ball at the Hawks’ 15 and two plays later, Brewer scored on a 2-yard rush to for a 14-8 advantage.
After forcing a three-and-out, the Bulldogs marched 59 yards to extend the lead, as Charles rode a highlight-reel pancake block from Brewer into the end zone from 24 yards out, then Charles threw the two-point conversion pass to Wani, who made a terrific catch in the back of the end zone and extended the score 22-8 at halftime.
Portland completely broke it open in the third period. Marshwood snapped the ball out of the end zone on a punt for a safety, then Charles steamrolled a tackler en route to a 42-yard touchdown run.
After Colin Kelly recovered a fumble, Brewer added a 5-yard TD rush.
“I’ve been looking forward to this, the whole team has been,” said Brewer. “This was a revenge game and we made that pretty clear by the scoreboard.”
“This was in the front of our minds all week long,” added Portland Coach Jason McLeod. “It was an easy motivational tool for the kids, but we have to keep things in context. It’s a regular-season game. We got our first home win against a really good team and I think we’ll get better from it.”
Marshwood fell to 2-4 as its offense was held in check all night and the Hawks hurt themselves with penalties and turnovers.
“I think we ran one good offensive play the entire night,” said Hawks Coach Alex Rotsko. “We got beaten in every phase, offense, defense, the kicking game and coaching. It’s disappointing.”
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