The field was slightly soggy at the start of Cape Elizabeth’s football game against Gray-New Gloucester on Saturday. The rain was steady, but slow, making the 50-degree temperature bearable.
And then the weather took a turn for the worse. By the end of the first half the rain was steady and strong. The field had reached its absorption point and was puddling up like a potholed parking lot. The ball was slippery, but the field – especially between the hash marks – was even worse.
For Cape Elizabeth, though, none of this mattered. Losers of three out of the last four games, the Capers were focused on only one thing: remaining in the Class B playoff hunt. The conditions may have been miserable, but a loss would’ve been worse.
So, the Capers didn’t leave anything to chance. They scored their first touchdown on their first play from scrimmage and never looked back, adding five more along the way to win 40-6.
“We just needed to come out and execute and we knew it could potentially be a challenge in this stuff, but it didn’t seem to bother us,” said Cape coach Aaron Filieo. “We knew that they had struggled this season quite a bit. Sometimes that’s tough to get up for, but these guys know that we can’t take anybody lightly, we can’t take anything for granted. We just need to come out and take care of business if we want a shot at making the playoffs. That’s what we did.”
The Capers forced the first of many three and outs for the Patriots on their first possession, and, after a good return, they took over at G-NG’s 22. Senior tailback Vinnie Moulton, still filling in for the injured Kyle Toot, took the handoff on first down and bounced outside to the right sidelines where he found enough running room to score.
The Patriots converted a fourth down in their own territory on their next possession, but the drive ended when the Cape defense forced and recovered a fumble on the 33. Filieo kept the ball on the ground again, giving it once to sophomore Sean Meagher and four times to Moulton, who pounded in for the TD from the five. Senior quarterback Mike Kertes scored the two-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 5:47 to go in the first.
“Their kids ran hard, and we didn’t wrap them up,” said G-NG coach Hank Girardin. “If you don’t tackle good kids they score. That’s pretty much what happened.”
Moulton made the score 20-0 after another turnover on downs by the Patriots. Again, he didn’t waste much time, going 27 yards for the score on the third play of the drive.
The next time the Capers got the ball, they fumbled it away, but it didn’t amount to a score so Filieo didn’t fret. One turnover in the slop was okay with him. And plus, that possession was the only blip on the radar screen for the Capers in the first half.
Moulton scored his fourth and final touchdown from 23 yards out with 6:33 left in the first half.
Kertes accounted for Cape’s remaining 12 points. He blocked a punt to set up a first and goal from the nine and then scrambled in from the five to make it 34-0.
“It’s a mess out there, but it was fun sliding an extra 30 feet or whatever,” said Kertes. “Backyard football is fun to play (in the rain), but when it means your season or not it’s tough.
“We just executed. One turnover in a mess like this is pretty good as opposed to last time, when we had seven against York in these conditions. That’s what makes a difference.”
On their next possession, the Capers did some experimenting.
“We wanted to see if we could throw the ball in these conditions in case we have to (at some point),” said Filieo. “We wanted to look at the shotgun a little bit, and I was impressed with the way we executed with that.”
Kertes moved the ball down inside of the five with two long completions – one to Ben Weimont, the other to Sami Chbani – and then punched it in himself to make it 40-0.
The Patriots ruined the shutout late in the fourth quarter when Sam Christy hit Matt Brooks from eight yards out, but the Capers had their win and stayed alive in the playoff hunt.
“It’s hard for me to believe but that’s what people are telling me,” said Filieo. “Regardless, though, we still want to win out. We still want to beat Poland and Mountain Valley and end the season on a positive note.”
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