Big plays help Ponies roll to preseason victory over Orono
By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Foxcroft Academy found the endzone seven times in the team’s Aug. 26 preseason game vs. Class D Orono High School at Oakes Field, while holding the visiting Red Riots to a lone score in the fourth quarter to win 48-7. All seven Foxcroft touchdowns came on plays of at least 20 yards — the team ran just two plays inside the redzone with both of these coming in the fourth quarter from the Orono 18-yard line and the Red Riot-20.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
POINTING TO THE 2016 SEASON — Foxcroft Academy junior kicker Levi Steadman had a busy evening on Aug. 26 during the team’s preseason game vs. Orono as he converted a half dozen PATs in a 48-7 Pony victory. Foxcroft will open the regular season on Friday at 7 p.m. at MDI, with WABI scheduled to broadcast the game on its CW station.
The longest of Foxcroft’s touchdowns ended up being the first of the seven. After Orono won the toss and elected to receive, the team drove down the field to the Pony-10. On a third-and-9 Red Riot senior quarterback Jackson Coutts — who earlier in the week verbally accepted a scholarship to play Div. I baseball at the University of Rhode Island — dropped back to pass and threw the ball into the endzone with his intended receiver facing Pony sophomore Hyatt Smith in single coverage.
Smith did not need any help on the play as he got in the way of the throw to make the interception. With room around him, Smith opted to run the ball out of the endzone rather than settle for the touchback. The Pony defense then set up a wall for Smith to return the pick down the entire length of the home team sideline on the approximate 105-yard touchdown return.
The Foxcroft defense would force a punt on the ensuing possession as the offense got the ball at its own 30 (the exhibition contest featured special teams units kicking and punting the ball down the field to practice for the regular season but without any return attempts). The Ponies would make the team’s lone offensive play of the first quarter count as senior quarterback Nick Clawson took the shotgun snap from senior center Cody Labbe.
Clawson handed off to senior tailback Billy Brock who ran off right tackle and cut to the outside. Brock kept going and he only stopped after crossing the goal line for the 70-yard touchdown. Brock would add another touchdown in the second quarter, from 28 yards out, as he finished with a game-high 132 yards on the ground in nine attempts.
In the third quarter senior David Salley and Clawson both picked up touchdowns on the ground. Salley’s run came from the Orono-27 and Clawson, after avoiding the sack, scrambled 57 yards for the score. Clawson’s play made the score 33-0 which then became 34-0 on a PAT by junior Levi Steadman, who went 6-of-7 on his point after attempts.
The two teams mixed in reserves for the last quarter, with sophomore Matthew Spooner taking over the Pony quarterbacking duties. Spooner and company used seven plays to move the ball from the Foxcroft-21 to the Orono-30 where the offense faced a third-and-22.
On third down Spooner spied junior Cameron Marsh wide open on the right side of the field. Marsh leapt to make the catch and with no Red Riot defenders around him, Marsh had an easy path to the endzone for the touchdown.
Foxcroft followed the lone Orono score of the game with touchdown No. 7. From the opposition’s 20-yard line — on the lone Pony trip inside the redzone — sophomore Michaleb Niles took the handoff. He bounced outside to the right and ran 20 yards for the touchdown inside the last 30 seconds of play. Steadman followed with his last PAT for the 48th point for Foxcroft.
The Ponies will open the regular season on the road in Bar Harbor when the Ponies face Mount Desert Island High School on Friday evening at 7 p.m. WABI is scheduled to broadcast the game on its CW station.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
CLEAR PATH TO THE ENDZONE — Junior Cameron Marsh had an easy path across the goalline on a 30-yard touchdown reception from sophomore Matthew Spooner on Aug. 26 during Foxcroft’s preseason game vs. Orono.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
FISTFUL OF JERSEY — Senior Nick Dyer grabs a hold of Orono senior Keenan Collett as Pony sophomore Jeremy Richard runs in from the left.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
TRYING TO STOP BROCK — Senior ball carrier Billy Brock is wrapped up by the Red Riot defense as Foxcroft junior Johnny Labree looks on. Brock scored a pair of touchdowns, on runs of 70 and 28 yards, in the first half of Friday’s preseason game vs. Orono.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
TOUGH RUNNING — Dragging a pair of defenders, sophomore Michaleb Niles gains five yards for a first down on a fourth-and-2 in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s contest. Three plays later Niles would run for a 20-yard touchdown.
PRESEASON FOOTBALL
Foxcroft 48, Orono 7
OR 0 0 0 7 | 7
FA 13 7 14 14 | 48
First qtr: FA — Smith 105-yd
Int. return (Steadman kick)
FA — Brock 70 yards (kick wide)
Second qtr: FA — Brock 28 yds
(Steadman kick)
Third qtr: FA — Salley 27 yds
(Steadman kick)
FA — Clawson 57 yds
(Steadman kick)
Fourth qtr: FA — Spooner 30 yds
to Marsh (Steadman kick)
OR — Grace 75 yds (Coutts kick)
FA — Niles 20 yds (Steadman kick)
Passing: FA — Spooner 2-of-3
70 yds TD; Clawson 3-of-4 60 yds
OR — Coutts 12-of-22 145 yds
2 Int; Collett 0-of-0.
Receiving: FA — Nelson 2, 46 yds;
Dyer 1, 38 yds;Marsh 1,
30 yds TD; Smith 1, 16 yds
OR — Collett 6, 89 yds;
Honey 3, 34 yds; Fowler
1, 10 yds McCluskey 1,
10 yds; Pinto 1, 2 yds
Rushing: FA — Brock 9, 132 yds
2 TD; Clawson 7, 92 yds TD; Niles
8, 48 yds TD; Chadbourne 3,
45 yds; Nelson 4, 28 yds; Salley 2,
|28 yds TD; Spooner 4, 23 yds;
Marsh 1, 6 yds
OR — Grace 8, 85 yds TD;
Collett 12, 69 yds;
Coutts 6, 19 yds;
Fowler 4, 7 yds;