SOUTH PORTLAND – Damien Shepard ran to the left, ran to the right and ran up the middle. Essentially, Shepard ran riot Friday night, and South Portland could only try to stop him.
In just three quarters of work, the Windham quarterback rushed for 147 yards and four touchdowns and threw for another in the Eagles 47-13 opening-game win in South Portland. After playing wingback the past few seasons, Shepard looked right at home in his first game as signal caller at the varsity level, though he said the credit lay with more than just him.
“It was all up to my offensive line, and the coaches had great play calling, I honestly couldn’t have gotten anywhere without the five up front,” said Shepard, who also had an interception playing safety on defense. “They gave me a play, I got behind them and said, ‘OK, clear it out and I’ll get to a touchdown.’”
A simple game plan, and one that worked from the get go.
After stopping South Portland’s opening drive, Windham took the ball and ran it right at the Red Riots on a five-play, 70-yard drive that set the tone just five minutes in. Shepard had a pair of 18-yard runs in the possession and capped it off with an 11-yard scamper to open the scoring.
Led by twins Shawn and Joe Francoeur, the Windham offensive line was dominant all night, opening up holes for Shepard and his backs to cut through. Getting the big guys up front to better throw their weight up front has been a key goal for the Eagles all offseason.
“Like we’ve focused on all year since T.A. hit us in the mouth (in the playoffs) last year is if we’re going to win we’ve got to be physical and get back to the basic and doing things right,” Windham coach Matt Perkins said. “Offensively play aggressively, on defense play downhill and make tackles that’s been our focus this whole offseason and we really saw some nice things tonight.
“I was very concerned all offseason about them playing downhill on us and I think our guys stood up to the challenge up front.”
Windham added to its lead halfway through the quarter with a safety after the ball was snapped over South Portland quarterback Duncan Preston’s head and into the end zone. On the ensuing drive, the Eagles again drove down the field and Shepard looked to have another touchdown run but it was negated by a holding penalty, and the drive stalled.
South Portland took full advantage on its next drive when Preston showed Shepard wasn’t the only quarterback on the field who could show some individual brilliance with the ball in his hand. From his own 30-yard line the Red Riot junior took the ball to his right on a keeper, dodged a few tackles to get to the sideline and outran the Eagles secondary to make it 8-6.
But that’s the last sniff of a lead the Red Riots would get as Windham rattled off 39 straight points in the second and third quarters.
The big blow came late in the first half. With Windham up 20-6 South Portland moved into the red zone and had a 4th and inches at the 19. But a Matt Hammond run up the middle was stuffed by Windham’s interior line, a small sample of what had been happening all game.
“I would have liked to see us run the ball a little better with our four seniors ourselves up front,” South Portland coach Steve Stinson said. “They were able to take that away and it made us one-dimensional. They’re very physical up front, they do a great job. They did a great job of stopping us.”
Windham then ran its own version of the two-minute drill as 12- and 31-yard runs by Shepard and an 18-yard run from Colby Waterhouse got the ball down to the South Portland 9-yard-line with six seconds to play in the half. That’s when Shepard showed off his arm, finding tight end Jacob Perry in the end zone with a second left on the clock to give Windham an unassailable 27-6 lead heading into halftime.
Shepard, Liam Sullivan and backup quarterback Todd Allen all scored touchdowns in the third quarter to run the total to 47 before a late score from South Portland’s Joey DiBiase made it 47-13.
In addition to his wizardry on the ground Shepard threw for 56 yards on 6 of 10 passing while Waterhouse ran 14 times for 106 yards. With an offense that boasts several threats in addition to a quarterback that can beat you through the air and ground, Windham could be a tough proposition to stop all season for defenses in Western Class A.
“I think the thing that’s so neat about him is he’s so dynamic,” Perkins said of his quarterback. “And then you have the running backs Waterhouse, Liam Sullivan, and our receivers. You’ve got to pick your poison and the guys are really buying into what we’re doing, and that’s key.”
Preston, also starting his first game at quarterback at the varsity level and a player who Stinson is looking to build around, ran for 94 yards on 12 carries and also threw for 76 yards on 7 of 15 passing.
For a Red Riots team that lost 14 starters from last year’s Western Maine semifinalists, an opening-game win against a Windham squad that returns 16 starters of its own was always going to be a tough task. The key, Stinson said, was getting game time under his young team’s belt, as well as a short memory as the team prepares for its next opponent in Biddeford.
“It’s kind of what we thought, good things and bad things, but certainly a lot of teachable moments,” he said. “A lot of first-game things, kind of what you’d expect unfortunately with some younger guys too many mistakes, too many penalties, that kind of stuff that just stalls you every time you get something going.
“It’s going to be a process with this group, but they’re a great group to coach and I’m looking forward to it.”
Windham quarterback Damien Shepard runs through a hole in the second quarter of his team’s 47-13 victory over South Portland Friday night. Shepard ran for four touchdowns and threw for another in the win. (Photos by Cameron Dunbar)
South Portland coaches try to fire their team up in the second half of their 47-13 defeat to Windham. The Red Riots next face Biddeford away on Friday night.
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