Dexter defeats Foxcroft in overtime for first win over Ponies in 31 years
DEXTER — A quarterback sneak and interception in the endzone helped give Dexter Regional High School a 27-21 overtime victory vs. Foxcroft in a Class D North/Little Ten Conference contest on the afternoon Oct. 12. The win is the first for the Tigers over the team’s neighbor to the north since the Reagan administration.
Dexter last defeated Foxcroft on the gridiron in 1988, dropping 25 straight before Saturday (the two teams have not played every season over the last three decades which included the Ponies being in Class C from 2013-16). The series lead is now 41-21-2 in favor of Foxcroft.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME — Dexter senior Cameron Paige gets away from would-be tackler Foxcroft Academy junior Logan Martin and senior Isaac Weymouth for a 14-yard touchdown run during the second quarter of an Oct. 12 contest in Dexter. The host Tigers won 27-21 in overtime for the program’s first victory over the Ponies since 1988.
Bonus football was needed with the two teams tied at 21 points after regulation. Dexter won the toss and the team elected to have possession first with the ball placed at the 10-yard line for a first-and-goal.
Tiger senior Cameron Paige gained six yards on the first play from scrimmage, but the Foxcroft defense backed him up two yards on second down.
The only completed pass of the day for Dexter came at just the right time as senior quarterback Logan Perkins connected with Paige on a screen pass to the right. Paige was tackled just outside the goalline for fourth down.
Perkins took the next snap and dived into the endzone on a quarterback sneak to give his team a 27-21 lead. A bad snap resulted in the Tigers not attempting a PAT as the team stayed ahead by six points.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
TWO QUICK SCORES — Foxcroft junior Logan Martin dives across the goaline for a 9-yard touchdown reception late in the first half at Dexter. An interception in Tiger territory led to a 2-yard Martin touchdown run for two scores in the last minute of the second quarter.
Foxcroft now had its chance in the overtime with the ball at the 10. The Ponies opted to keep throwing the ball, the team attempted 35 passes to just five for Dexter all game, but the first pass fell incomplete and a second down completion from sophomore Austin Seavey to junior Logan Martin resulted in no gain. Seavey looked for Martin on third down but the football fell incomplete on the wet grass in the endzone.
The Tiger defense came up with another incompletion on fourth down, but a flag for pass interference gave Foxcroft new life with a fresh set of downs at the 5-yard line.
On first down Foxcroft passed for the fifth time in as many plays of the extra session. Seavy spied senior Jed Dean in the left side of the endzone. Dexter sophomore Avery Gagnon was covering the receiver and he was able to jump in the way and get a hand on the ball to deflect it into the air. The pigskin landed in the grasp of Tiger senior Tyler Chapman, who had his feet inbounds for the game-winning interception.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
AIMING FOR AMES — Pony junior Lucas Ames is able to grab the football away from Dexter junior defensive back Avery Gagnon to start a 29-yard reception to the Dexter-1 late in the second quarter, setting up a 2-yard touchdown.
Dexter head coach Andrew Shorey credited his defense its response following the pass interference call. “That was probably the most impressive thing to me, that they kept playing after that,” he said. “They could have had their heads down but they didn’t and they played hard right to the end.”
Paige said before the teams returned to the field for overtime the coaches urged “‘Everything you’ve got right here,’ that’s what they say when we do our hills and our conditioning ‘everything right here in the fourth quarter’ or in this case overtime.”
He said the team was focused all week and “there was a lot of motivation coming into this” with the Foxcroft winning streak on the players’ minds.
“The bottom line is it was a good, hard-fought football game and they made a few more plays than us in the end and that was the result at the end,” Foxcroft head coach Danny White said. “To have that Foxcroft-Dexter game be played like that on a Saturday afternoon that was fun. Obviously the loss was not fun but somebody has to come out with it and ultimately that’s what we want here, that’s what we want in the LTC to be competitive like that against one another and it was a great football game, good to be a part of.”
The teams scored three touchdowns in the opening quarter. Pony freshman Cadyen Crocker ran the ball two yards up the middle to cap off the game’s opening drive. The first play for the Dexter offense had junior Parker Ponte rush for an 80-yard touchdown (he had a contest-best 90 yards on the ground on three carries). In the final minute Paige scored on a 14-yard run to give his team a 14-7 lead with the PAT.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
CLOSING IN — Dexter senior Gage Stone gets ready to knock the football away from Foxcroft sophomore Jesse Drury near the goalline.
With just under a minute to go in the opening half, Martin weaved his way through the defense for a 9-yard touchdown pass. He would end the day with 12 receptions for 87 yards and a touchdown and 81 rushing yards on 20 carries and another touchdown.
“We had to stop Logan Martin, they had some other good backs but we were really trying to stop Logan Martin which we didn’t do a great job of,” Shorey said.
Dexter opted to throw after bringing the kickoff back to the team’s own 31, and after two incompletions a pass on third down was intercepted at the Tiger-41 by junior Lucas Ames with just over 30 seconds to go.
The Ponies took advantage of the turnover as Seavey found junior Luke Stedman for an 11-yard completion and then Ames at the Dexter-1. With no timeouts left the offense hurried and Seavey spiked the football to kill the clock with 1.5 seconds remaining.
After a Tiger timeout, Martin took the shotgun snap. He ran to his right and found the angle to get into the endzone by the pylon untouched. A Stedman PAT put his team ahead 21-14.
“We kept grinding, they started making some plays and we kept after it,” Shorey said. “Our line was very good today.”
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
COLD SHOWER — Seniors Haedyn Guenther, left, and Colton Tibbetts get ready to douse head coach Andrew Shorey following Dexter’s 27-21 overtime win vs. Foxcroft. The Tigers defeated the Ponies for the first time since 1988, a span consisting of 25 meetings between the neighboring programs.
The score remained the same through the third quarter. On the first play of the fourth, Chapman took the handoff at his team’s 46 and he ran 54 yards for the touchdown. A PAT by senior Gage Stone would enable Dexter to match Foxcroft’s 21 points and set the stage for overtime nearly 12 minutes of gametime later.
Shorey said his players were aware of the losing streak against Foxcroft dating to well over a decade before any of them were born. “The season’s not done just because we won a regular season game,” he said. “It was a great game, a fun game but we need to move forward to the end of the season.”
The victory was Dexter’s fourth in a row as the team improved to 5-1 and stands in second place behind Bucksport High School (the undefeated Golden Bucks are the only squad to beat the Tigers in 2019). Dexter will host Mount View High School of Thorndike (0-6) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19 in the team’s regular season home finale.
The Ponies are now 3-3 and the team will host Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln (4-2) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 18. The two teams will enter the contest ranked fourth and third in the standings respectively.
FOOTBALL
Dexter 27,
Foxcroft 21 (OT)
FOX 7 14 0 0 0 | 21
DEX 14 0 0 7 6 | 27
First: F — Crocker 2 yds
(Stedman kick)
D — Ponte 80 yds
(Stone kick)
D — Paige 14 yds
(Stone kick)
Second: F — Martin 9 yds
from Seavey (Stedman kick)
F — Martin 2 yds
(Stedman kick)
Fourth: D — Chapman 54 yds
(Stone kick)
Overtime: D — Perkins 1 yd
(Stedman kick)
Passing: F — Seavey 17-of-34
177 yds TD Int; Martin 0-of-1 Int
D — Perkins 1-of-5 5 yds Int
Receiving: F — Martin 12,
87 yds TD; Ames 2, 58 yds;
Stedman 2, 26 yds;
Crocker 1, 6 yds
D — Paige 1, 5 yds
Rushing: F — Martin 20,
81 yds TD; Crocker 8,
16 yds TD; Drury 2, 2 yds;
Seavey 1, -4 yds
D — Ponte 3, 90 yds TD;
Paige 20, 73 yds TD;
Chapman 1, 54 yds TD;
Perkins 6, 45 yds TD;
Stone 8, 23 yds;
Wing 1, 2 yds
Records: F 3-3,
D 5-1