SACO — It wasn’t the biggest beatdown in Maine high school football history score-wise, but anyone who attended the Thornton Academy football game against Noble on Saturday knew it was dominant effort of both offense and defense.
The Golden Trojans defeated the Knights 58-0. In the process, Thornton’s offense racked up 547 total yards on the afternoon, while the Trojan defense allowed Noble only 51 total yards of offense. Thornton has now scored 160 points in three games, while only allowing 7 points on defense.
Even after the almost perfect performance, Thornton coach Kevin Kezal said the Trojans can still improve, specifically when it comes to penalties, which was the only trouble for the Trojans throughout the game.
“I think the thing we’re concerned with right now is that after three games, we’ve had a lot of penalties,” Kezal said. “We’ve got to clean that up and we can’t keep doing that. It’s early in the year we’re a young and inexperienced team, but we’ve got three games and an exhibition game under our belt, we’re continuing to make a lot of penalties, and if we keep that up, it’s going to hurt us down the line.”
Thornton quarterback Josh Woodward accounted for 190 total yards of offense and two touchdowns, all accounted for in the first half. Woodward was 7-11 through the air for 98 yards, including a 20-yard strike to wide receiver James Ek in the second quarter. Woodward only needed five rushes to reach 92 yards on the ground, including a 47-yard touchdown sprint in the first quarter. Woodward now has rushed for 401 yards in three games on the season with seven total touchdowns.
The Trojans (3-0) beat the Knights into submission through its rushing attack throughout the contest. The Trojans used 10 different backs throughout the game to carry the ball. Besides Woodward, Andrew Libby, Dimitri Skinsacos, Adam Lamontagne and Casey Wiseman all had rushing touchdowns for Thornton.
Ek caught the only touchdown pass through the air, and led the Trojans receivers with three catches for 48 yards. Skinsacos followed with three catches for 41 yards.
Thornton had 34-0 score going into halftime, and after scoring a touchdown on its first drive in the second half, Kezal pulled the starters off the field and let the backups play the rest of the half. Wiseman led the second-string offense with 81 yards rushing on 13 carries.
Though Noble was able to move the ball to the Thornton side of the field on multiple occasions, the Trojan defense overpowered the triple-option attack of Noble’s offense. Noble quarterback Ethan Beaulier was held to 29 yards passing and 16 yards rushing on the day, accounting for 45 of Noble’s 51 yards of offense.
Thornton moves on to play against Sanford at Cobb Stadium on Friday. The Redskins (2-1) are coming off its first loss of the season, as they were downed 14-0 in a rain-soaked contest against Scarborough last week at Mitchell Stadium.
“[Sanford running back Shawn] Goodrich is a good back, he’s going to get a lot of carries for them,” Kezal said. “Defensively, they give you multiple looks. We’re going to have to cover them up and they’re very athletic. Down there on a Friday night, it’s a tough place to play.”
— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
