OAKLAND — Revenge sure felt sweet for the Dragons on Friday night at Veterans Field.
Hunter Garrett ran for 265 yards and three touchdowns, all on runs longer than 40 yards, and senior quarterback Christian Jensen ran for two scores and threw for another as Brunswick rolled to a 42-0 win over Messalonskee in a Pine Tree Conference Class B football game between two teams who were unbeaten heading into the night. The victory clearly marked the Dragons (4-0) as the favorites in the conference at the halfway mark of the regular season and erased the painful memories of two previous defeats in the last three years to the Eagles.
“We’re going into every game as must-win for us. We want that No. 1 seed,” Brunswick head coach Dan Cooper said. “These kids, they were on those teams that lost to Messalonskee in the past, and they were really, really motivated to come out here and play well.”
Messalonskee had as many first downs in the first half as they did turnovers, twice killing short-lived drives with fumbles in their own half of the field. Not until late in the third quarter did the Eagles (3-1) even advance into Brunswick territory.
Still, Messalonskee head coach Brad Bishop focused on the fact that his team never quit despite staring at a giant deficit almost immediately.
“We got beat by a better team but I still believe in our kids,” Bishop said. “We’ll work our tails off all next week and we’ll bounce back.
“We’ll take this as a learning experience.”
From the first drives for each team, it was clear it was going to be the Dragons’ night.
After a three-and-out for Messalonskee on the game’s first possession, which included a penalty and a fumbled snap, it took only three plays for Brunswick to put the game’s first points on the board. Garrett ripped off a 69-yard touchdown run for a 7-0 lead just over three and a half minutes into the first quarter.
Brunswick opened the second quarter right where it left off in the first, as a 26-yard Garrett run set up a first and 10 at the Messalonskee 17-yard line. Two plays later, on first-and-goal from the 1, Jensen dove into the end zone for a 14-0 advantage. It was an impressive, almost effortless, eight-play drive that covered 73 yards and ate up four minutes on the clock
Jackson Gordon pounced on the second of his two fumble recoveries just three plays later, jumping on another fumbled snap and setting the stage for another Jensen 1-yard scoring run.
Garrett took a reverse 42 yards for his second touchdown of the night with 2:21 left in the first half, and the rout was on.
“We practiced all week. We put in the hard work, and the progress shows,” said Garrett, who missed several days of practice with illness. “We came out, and we showed up.”
Garrett said he expected a tough battle between to playoff-bound PTC B teams but felt things swung in Brunswick’s favor almost immediately following his big run in the first quarter.
“I was expecting a tough battle from the first snap,” Garrett said. “I got a great run behind some good blocks, and we set the momentum right there. From then on, it just wasn’t the same from (Messalonskee).”
In the third quarter, Jensen found a wide-open Corban Teel for a 27-yard pass over the middle that hit paydirt and Garrett capped his night with a 50-yard touchdown run to complete the scoring.
Messalonskee running back Colby Dexter, who carried six times on the night for just 9 yards, was already looking forward to a potential playoff meeting with Brunswick next month.
“It’s a wakeup call for us,” Dexter said. “We came in here thinking, ‘We’re going to be good.’ This just showed, we need to work harder. It’s definitely a wakeup call.”
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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