FREEPORT — The Freeport High football team came in to Monday’s game with Oak Hill coming off its biggest loss of the season, a blowout loss to Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale.
“Last week wasn’t like us, we didn’t want to let that happen again,” said Freeport senior Danny Casale. “We didn’t want to have that same feeling again.”
It didn’t happen again. The Falcons jumped to a 20-0 lead in the first 3:18 of the game in a 41-19 victory over Oak Hill (4-2). The Raiders were coming off a shortened week of practice due to COVID-19 issues.
Casale picked off Oak Hill quarterback Jackson Arbour on the first play of scrimmage and took it back 67 yards for a touchdown. Casale thinks his interception set the tone early.
“That gave us the jolt we needed,” he said. “Last week the secondary, including myself, had a terrible game. Today I needed to prove why I’m a starter and why I’m a senior captain.”
On the ensuing Raiders’ drive, Casale picked off Arbour again. He returned it to the 5-yard line, setting up a touchdown run for Jordan Knighton. Knighton led the Falcons with 118 rushing yards on 13 carries. He scored three times on runs of 5, 39, and 26 yards.
“The schedule over the past week has thrown us all off,” said Freeport Coach Paul St. Pierre, whose team was playing its second consecutive game on a Monday. “Things will be back to normal this week with the bye.”
Nick White added 57 yards of rushing for Freeport and Caden Thompson paced Oak Hill with 59 yards on nine carries. He scored a 12-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter.
“I thought we ran the ball well, we have a lot of positives we can take away from tonight,” said Oak Hill Coach Chad Stowell, whose team practiced just once in 10 days before Monday’s game due to COVID-19 issues. “Credit to them (Freeport), but I think we all know this wasn’t our best game.”
VOLLEYBALL
(2) SCARBOROUGH 3, (10) THORNTON ACADEMY 1: Scarborough (14-2) relied on a strong service game to eliminate Thornton Academy (8-8) in four sets (25-9, 25-27, 25-17, 25-19) in a Class A state quarterfinal.
The Red Storm will host either No. 3 Gorham or sixth-ranked Sanford/Noble in the state semifinals Thursday.
Scarborough scored the first seven points of the first game and were never challenged as Mya Jones served four aces.
The Golden Trojans then rallied from down a set point in game two to prevail. With the third set hanging in the balance, the Red Storm served up 13 aces, including five from freshman Natalie Moynihan and four from Jones.
Thornton Academy cut a 17-6 deficit to 20-17 in the fourth game, but Scarborough closed it out.
Jones finished with 25 assists and 12 aces, and Moynihan had seven aces and six kills. Maddie Strouse added eight kills.
The Golden Trojans were led by Summer Mackell, who had six blocks, and Kiley Mackell, who finished with seven kills and three blocks.
GIRLS’ SOCCER
(8) ST. DOMINIC 5, (9) PINE TREE ACADEMY 0: Natalie Brocke scored three goals as the Saints (5-10) beat the Breakers (7-5) in a Class D South opening-round game at Auburn.
St. Dom’s moves on to the quarterfinals against top-ranked North Yarmouth Academy (13-0-1) at 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday.
Eli Canfield of the Time Record and Michael Hoffer of The Forecaster contributed to this report.
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