READFIELD — A two-headed rushing attack led the way for Mt. Ararat over Maranacook in the eight-man football playoffs two years ago.
In the teams’ first meeting since that game, the Eagles followed a similar script to another victory.
Kaiden Getchell ran 21 times for 257 yards and three touchdowns, Shea Farrell added 13 carries for 130 yards and three more scores, and Mt. Ararat beat Maranacook 44-8 in both teams’ regular-season finale.
“It’s awesome. I love that kid (Farrell) so much, we just tear it up on the field no matter what,” Getchell said. “Everything was clicking. It was a rocky first start, but we put that behind us and just executed in the second half.”
The teams met in the 2019 Large School division championship, and Holden Brannan and Riley Morin ran 46 times for 281 yards in the Eagles’ 36-14 victory. On Friday night, Getchell and Farrell were even more explosive. Getchell broke two scoring runs of more than 60 yards, and Farrell added another.
“We’ve pretty much done that all year,” said Mt. Ararat coach Frank True, whose team finished the regular season 6-1. “They’re two very good running backs that run very hard. All season long, they’ve been pretty much splitting carries. One will have a couple more than the other sometimes, then the next, somebody else has a couple more than the other. It’s a great luxury to have.”
Maranacook (2-3) got 133 yards on 21 carries from Owen Dunn, but had trouble moving the ball against Mt. Ararat’s defense, particularly through the air. The Eagles intercepted starting quarterback Chris Reid three times, with Farrell snagging two picks and Mack Wilkins catching the other.
“We were in the red zone four times in the first half, and scored once,” Black Bears coach Jordan DeMillo said. “That can’t happen.”
The first half wasn’t great for either team, as even the Eagles were frustrated with how they started the game. Mt. Ararat got the game’s first possession and had to punt after a bad snap on first down, and Maranacook marched all the way down to the Eagles’ 20-yard line. The drive stalled, however, with Wilkins intercepting Reid on a pass intended for Seth White in the end zone.
An incomplete pass gets by Maranacook’s Seth White, left, and Mt. Ararat defensive back Mack Wilkins during a football game Friday in Readfield. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
Mt. Ararat took advantage four plays later, with Getchell sprinting 65 yards for a 6-0 lead with 4:43 left in the first quarter. The Black Bears responded by driving to the Eagles’ 22 and 12 on the next two possessions, but an interception and turnover on downs, respectively, ended the threats. Four plays after the second stop, Farrell took off for 63 yards and a 12-0 lead with 7:01 to go in the second.
Farrell followed with a 10-yard touchdown run and Getchell found the end zone from 27 yards out to boost the lead to 26-0, but Maranacook got on the board at 26-8 with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Reid to Thomas Struck with 1:08 left in the half. There was no stopping the Eagles’ ground game, however, and Farrell scored from 6 yards out and Getchell followed with a 76-yard run to make it 38-8 with 9:44 to play.
Peter Hahesy had a 7-yard touchdown run to round out the scoring.
“Unfortunately, that’s probably one of the worst first halves of football we’ve played all year,” True said. “We had some personnel changing around … which got us off on the wrong foot. But we made the adjustments, and went back to a little bit more base for what we want to do, and the guys responded in the second half.”
The Eagles’ passing defense made sure there would be no comeback, holding Maranacook to 118 passing yards on 33 attempts.
“We’ve got some young guys out there,” True said. “We’ve got a sophomore and a junior running, as far as our coverage goes, at our corner positions, and a junior (Farrell) at safety. … It was impressive to watch. We had some breakdowns here and there, but for the most part, we had them.”
DeMillo had some praise for Dunn, a sophomore who ran hard throughout the game and also found Travis Lemelin for a 34-yard completion.
“He’s a great player,” DeMillo said. “He’s an animal. We’re very excited about him and his class, moving forward. We’re kind of grooming him into another Garit Laliberte, really.”
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