WELLS – Poland Regional High’s football team didn’t make any glaring mistakes and competed to the final whistle.
But after the program’s first 4-0 start the Knights struggled when they stepped up to play an opponent with championship heritage. And aspirations.
Wells made a cold, clear statement on its opening drive Friday night before a large crowd on the annual Armed Forces night. Ten straight running plays. Fifty-five mercilessly methodical yards and a 1-yard touchdown by Eli Potter and Dyllan Davis’ point after and in 4:45 Wells led 7-0 and had scored more points against Poland’s defense than the Knights’ first four opponents. In its first four games, Poland had a 100-8 scoring advantage, two points allowed via a safety.
By half, Wells (3-2) led 20-0, had a 227-9 advantage in total yards, and was well on its way to a 32-6 Class D victory.
“We wanted to prove ourselves physically down the road and I think we did,” said Wells Coach Tim Roche. “I think we need to do that. We need to establish that our line can block.”
Poland (4-1) did not commit a penalty in the first half and had zero turnovers. (Wells also did not commit a turnover). Players like Isaac Ramsdell, who did a lot of everything, and undersized defensive lineman Andre Desrosier impressed with their physicality and scrap. But the offense could only generate an occasional thrust and had trouble protecting quarterbacks Dylan Cook and Damon Martin, the latter scoring a late touchdown on a 7-yard run against Wells’ second-team defense.
“Certainly up front they’re a lot more physical than us,” said Poland Coach Gus LeBlanc.
Wells increased its lead to 14-0 on a well thrown 38-yard deep pass by Brooks Fox that Conner Whitten ran under.
Wells hit another big pass play, a 30-yarder from Whitten to Riley Murphy after Whitten had caught a lateral behind the line which appeared very close to being a forward pass, which would have negated the play. That set up a Dominic Capello 3-yard scoring run 34 seconds before the half.
Fox completed 4-of-5 passes for 73 yards and displayed a strong, accurate arm on deep throws. But he said he’s just fine with Wells emphasizing its run game.
“As a quarterback you’d think I’d love to throw the ball but I mean when we can just run it and pound it down the other team’s throat and we don’t have to throw the ball at all, that’s my favorite type of drive,” Fox said. “Great blocking up front. Great runs by the running back. Just an all-around team win.”
Wells scored on its first two drives of the second half, both times sticking to the run game and capping it with short runs by fullbacks Potter from the 1 and then Capello for the 4. Potter finished as the leading rusher with 65 yards on 13 carries. Capello had 40 yards on five carries.
“We knew the fullback was going to be a problem,” LeBlanc said. “We shut down the jet sweep. We pretty much shut down buck sweep to the outside but we had a hard time with the fullback.”
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