DIXFIELD — Dallas Berry’s right foot foiled Maranacook again.
Berry, a sophomore who kicked three extra points that were the difference in Dirigo’s 21-18 win over Maranacook during the regular season, split the uprights with a 22-yard field goal with 15.6 seconds left to give No.2 Dirigo a 17-14 win over No. 3 Maranacook in a Class E semifinal at Harlow Park on Friday.
Dirigo (8-1) advances to next week’s state championship game to face the winner of Saturday’s semifinal between Freeport and Camden Hills.
Maranacook ends its season at 6-4.
Maranacook trailed for nearly entire game before tying it with 5:01 to go on QB Garit Laliberte’s 32-yard TD run and Dakota Demott’s 2-point run.
The Black Bears forced a punt on Dirigo’s next possession, but had to line up to punt it back with 1:30 left.
Senior Jack Lavorgna (17 tackles, tow sacks) burst through the front wall and blocked the punt, recovering at the Bears’ 11 with 1:21 to go.
Having already used all of their timeouts, the Cougars called a run, incomplete pass and another run for 1 net yard, but got the ball centered for Berry who, with the clock still running boomed it down the middle with room to spare.
“Coach (Jim Hersom) took me aside and said ‘You know, if we need you down there, you’re going to have to take it'” Berry said. ” I said I’m up to the challenge,”
Maranacook will look back on a couple of chances to score, one in each half, that it didn’t convert.
The first came after the Black Bears recovered Alex Gorham’s fumble on the first play of the game. Starting at Dirigo’s 30, they advanced to the 19 for a first down. But a bad shotgun snap pushed them back to the 34, and they ended up turning the ball over on downs.
Trailing 14-6 early in the third quarter, Maranacook drove to first-and-goal at the 3. But Demott was stopped after a gain of 1 on first and second downs, and back-to-back QB sneaks by Laliberte from the 1 went nowhere.
“They played some really good, sound defense. They have some really, really good players in the middle,” Maranacook coach Walter Polky said. “It’s one of those things, knowing situations, knowing down and distance and things like that. Those are things you learn as a younger team as you keep playing, especially playing in big games like this.”
With leading rusher Alex Gorham limited to playing only defense by a bad ankle shortly after scoring the game’s first TD on a five-yard run, the Cougars turned to Berry to carry much of the load on offense. Berry (17 carries, 75 yards) delivered with a 17-yard TD run and PAT that put Dirigo up 14-0 with 1:39 left in the first half.
Maranacook answered immediately with its first scoring drive, capped by Laliberte’s 16-yard TD pass t9 Isac Philbrick on the 4th-and-11 with 32 seconds left in the half.
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