Oak Hill kicker Matt Fecteau starts the second half of a football season opener Saturday against Wells at Stacen Doucette Memorial Field in Wales. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
WALES — The Wells football team experienced a classic season opener on Saturday afternoon.
The Warriors fought through some sloppiness on both sides of the ball, littered with a few penalties.
Through it all, Wells also found offensive balance and turned in a shutout on defense, earning a 31-0 victory over Oak Hill in a Class D South game at Stacen Doucette Memorial Field.
“We should have done some things better. Give (Oak Hill) credit, they played tough,” Wells Coach Tim Roche said. “The penalties, that can’t happen down the road in these games that we’re going to have. And I realize it’s the first game, but this week, we’ve got to work hard to get rid of those things.”
Wells running backs Dominic Carbonneau (73 yards), Dominic Capello (85) and Dom Buxton (61) – accounted for more than 200 rushing yards, while senior quarterback Brooks Fox was 7 of 13 passing for 155 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception.
“(Fox) stepped up in the trenches over the summer, and I’ve been working with him,” said Capello, a senior fullback. “He’s stepped up a lot, and I’m very proud of him.”
The game represented Wells’ return to the Class D ranks. The Warriors were in Class C in recent seasons after back-to-back unbeaten championship seasons in Class D in 2017-18, when they won 24 straight games.
Running back Hunter Drew was the offensive leader for Oak Hill, rushing for 70 yards on 14 carries.
Wells capped its first two possessions with touchdowns through the air. On the opening drive, Fox found Conner Whitten on a play-action bootleg for a 14-yard scoring toss. The next possession was a quick one, as Fox reared back and heaved a deep pass to a wide-open Dyllan Davis for a 66-yard touchdown.
“We’re trying to throw a little bit more,” Roche said. “Brooks, I think he’s underrated (as a passer), and he’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever had. He went to all the passing camps. He went to Maine Elite. He went everywhere he could to become better. I thought he had a great game, made a couple little mistakes, but we can work on those. Other than that, he had a great game.”
Buxton added a 25-yard touchdown run late in the first half to give Wells a 19-0 halftime lead.
Wells cleaned up some of its penalty problems in the second half and notched two more touchdowns – a 20-yard run by Capello and a 5-yard run by Carbonneau.
Despite being outmanned, the Raiders started finding a rhythm offensively in the fourth quarter. Freshman quarterback Kai Taylor was 6 of 16 passing for 62 yards but moved Oak Hill down the field on its final drive,= before throwing an interception to Riley Murphy in the final seconds.
“I’m actually very pleased with how we performed,” Oak Hill Coach Chad Stowell said. “We’ve only got a couple of seniors… This is the first day we’ve seen Wells punt. There are steps in the right direction. A (defensive) shutout in the third quarter. We moved the ball (offensively).
“I’m very happy with (the team’s fight),” Stowell continued. “We talked about before the game, this is the ultimate measuring stick. How do we measure against this team? Obviously, today we showed we don’t measure up with them, but we have the ability to compete with them, and that’s going to be the big deal. In Class D South, everybody makes the playoffs. We just have to make sure we’re better in November than we are in September.”
The Warriors finished with 401 yards, while Oak Hill had 165.
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