OHMS goes all the way to the championships

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="122" caption="Vikings at OHCHS might have looked like this only they would be green."][/caption]

By Abby Shanor, Tyler Pelletier

OXFORD HILLS – There's big news here in the Oxford Hills – the middle school football team made the state championship game. Over the course of a long six-game season, the Vikings went 3-3, a respectable finishing record. Starting the season with 0-3 and the Vikings made it all the way ... a true underdog story.

The first three games were lost by a combined margin of nine points, all very close losses. What turned this team around was a win over Auburn, 13-12 at home. Auburn hadn’t lost a game before and didn’t lose another after until the play-offs.

The Vikings then went on a winning streak of three games including defeats of Lewiston, and Gardner by forfeit. When Gardner forfeited it gave the Vikings the fourth seed in the play-offs, which meant a rematch of the game with Auburn, who only lost one game the entire season and was the number one seed.

“The boys were really motivated for that game,” said Coach Chris Marston. “Not only because it was a play-off game, but because they knew if they knocked Auburn out of the play-offs, we would be the only team to beat Auburn all season and we would have done it twice. They took a lot of pride in knowing that they could accomplish that and nobody else could.”

The Vikings ended up shocking the Red Eddies 21-14, a major upset. They made it to the big show, as a complete underdog. The championship game was held at Mt. Blue middle school where the Vikings would take on Mt. Blue, one of the teams which beat the Vikings early in the season by two points. “We were very positive about our chances going into that championship game because we felt that we outplayed them earlier in the year, but they stole one from us,” explained Marston. “They returned two fumbles for touchdowns in the first meeting and those were their only points.”

Mt. Blue got on the score board early and used that momentum to spark a 16-0 lead at the half. The Vikings started the second half with the ball and marched up the field with a good running game by Gavin Bandy and a strong offensive push led by Zack Little and Brennan Gillespie.

The Vikings would score off a 20-yard touchdown pass by Brady LaFrance to Ian Lejonhud. That would be the only offense shown by the Vikings, and Mt. Blue would eventually win by a final score of 30-6.

“To go from 0-3 to playing in the championship game is something these boys can be proud of...this class will use that as a motivation for when they get into high school,” said Marston.

Coach Marston also noted how supportive families and local businesses were.

“This success could not have been possible if it wasn’t for them,” he concluded.