RUMFORD — Too much defense. Too much playoff experience.
It was too much of everything that Mountain Valley dished out on Saturday to Wells to halt the Warriors dreams of a Class B football championship. The Falcons beat Wells 18-0 for the Western Class B title Saturday at Chet Bulger Field in Rumford.
The Warriors received a taste of what they had been dishing out all season against the Falcons. Mountain Valley tallied 247 yards of offense, 180 yards of which came from the running game. Running back Taylor Bradley led the Falcons with 87 yards on the ground on 15 carries.
“They’re tough defensively, and we couldn’t do a lot,” Wells head coach Tim Roche said. “We thought we had them, twice. They’re quick too. We knew that going in. And then when we threw, we knew we would have trouble too because they were going to send the house and we didn’t want to get anybody killed. That’s a good football team. When you come up here, you know you’re going to face a good football team. There’s a reason they’re undefeated.”
However, it was the Falcons defense that stood out the most, allowing only 76 yards of total offense on Wells throughout the contest.
It was the ninth regional title game for Mountain Valley this decade, and they will move on to their fifth Class B state title game.
For Wells, it was their first regional title game since 2003. It was the first time this season the Wells defense, which had allowed only eight points per game, allowed more than 14 points in a single game all season.
“I had heard about [the points per game]and we knew their defense was amazing,” Mountain Valley quarterback Cameron Kaubris said. “They’re so fast. They have nothing to hang their heads about. I just think our line came to play, our backs hit the holes, and we made big plays when we needed to. That was everything.”
The first Mountain Valley touchdown came late in the first quarter, when fullback Josh Allen plowed over a host of Warriors defenders to get an 11-yard touchdown run. A failed two-point conversion try gave the Falcons a 6-0 score.
Falcons running back Tyler Mason added another touchdown on the ground, this time on a 5-yard run up the middle, to give Mountain Valley the 12-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Warriors scored twice on their second drive of the third quarter, but both scores were canceled out by penalties. Wells running back Michael Moats-Carpenter scored on a 14-yard run, but the play was called back for a holding penalty. Two plays later, quarterback Paul McDonough connected with Moats-Carpenter on a screen pass, which set up a 14-yard score, but that touchdown, too, was called back for holding. Thanks to a roughing-the-passer penalty by Mountain Valley, the Warriors got a fresh set of downs near the Falcons endzone, but a McDonough pass was intercepted by Kaubris.
Wells was flagged six times in the game. A long-running problem all season, Roche said the penalties were not to blame for the loss.
“You run a screen pass, and you tell your kids to let [the defenders] go,” Roche said. “I just don’t get how you hold them. You tell them to let them go, that’s what a screen pass is. But we needed to do more. That didn’t lose the game for us, we needed to do better, and [Mountain Valley} is a great football team, that’s what they are.”
The Falcons lone touchdown in the second half came in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard sneak by Kaubris to seal the 18-0 win.
The Warriors finish the season with a 9-2 record, both losses came against Mountain Valley.
The good news for the Warriors is they will only lose seven seniors, making Wells a favorite in Western Class B next season.
“We’ll be back,” Roche said. “We expect this now. It’s now become, this is what we should be doing. We’ll be back. It’s not the end of the world. You just feel bad for the seniors, because they wanted this so bad and worked so hard for it.”
— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318.
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