WATERVILLE — The biggest reason the Hermon High School football team has grown from a fledgling program to contender for the Class C North title?
That’s easy, senior quarterback Garrett Trask said.
“Confidence,” Trask said. “Confidence and doing the little things, because that’s all we were missing.”
The Hawks improved to 6-1 with a 48-21 thumping of Waterville. They sit solidly in second place in the regional Heal Point standings behind Maine Central Institute. The Hawks used a handful of big plays — scoring five touchdowns on plays of 20 yards or more — to pull away from the Purple Panthers (3-4).
Ahead 14-7 midway through the second quarter, Trask scored on a 37-yard run to give Hermon a 14-point edge. With 27.9 seconds left in the first half, Trask hit Keith Pomeroy with a 50 yard touchdown pass for a 27-7 halftime lead.
On Hermon’s first play from scrimmage of the second half, River Mullen ran 26 yards for a Hawks touchdown. After a Waterville three and out, Trask threw another 50-yard touchdown pass, this one to Wyatt Gogan, for a 41-7 lead. Trask finished with 89 yards rushing and two touchdowns, and 126 yards passing and two scores.
“That’s their scheme. Chuck the ball up and their guys go and get it. We’re standing hip to hip with the guy and we don’t make the play on the ball. We’re in position,” Waterville coach Matt Gilley said. “We saw nothing that we didn’t expect because they literally run four or five football plays. They have athletes, they try to get them in space, and the make moves and hopefully they’ve got more speed than you do. It’s really simple, but they put the ball in the hands of their guys and let them run. Once they get the edge, they’re flying up the field.”
Nick Wildhaber ran for 88 yards and two touchdowns for Waterville. Quarterback Jack Thompson ran for 107 yards, including a 57-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, for the Purple Panthers.
“They have a couple athletes. We knew they could pass, but we knew most of the time they were going to run,” Trask said.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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