HERMON – After being held scoreless and to just 70 total yards of offense in the first half, the Foxcroft Academy Ponies came out throwing in the second half and it paid off.
Junior quarterback Griffin Caruso completed consecutive passes of nine and 30 yards to Silas Topolski and Lucas Sands, respectively, to set up Finn Holmes’ 22-yard touchdown run in the third quarter which broke a scoreless deadlock and sent the undefeated Ponies on their way to a 17-0 win over Hermon at Pottle Field on Friday night.
Foxcroft Academy, which has won three straight Class D North titles and five in six years, improved to 5-0 while the Class C North Hawks fell to 3-2.
Junior Aiden Harvey kicked a 25-yard field goal to extend the lead with 4:59 remaining in the game and, following an interception by sophomore linebacker Thomas Day, Harvey came into the qame as the wildcat quarterback and carried the ball four straight times for 56 yards and a seven-yard touchdown.
In a wildcat set-up, the ball is snapped to the quarterback 5-7 yards behind the center in the shotgun formation and he runs with it.
“We felt like we needed to push them off us a little bit and it was going to require somebody to make a play,” said Foxcroft Academy coach Danny White in explaining his decision to go to the air. “Lucas made those plays down the field, Silas converting on third down with that diving play at the sticks.
“Those were huge conversions. And when we started to get a little bit of momentum, we were able to run the ball a little more effectively,” he added.
Topolski’s catch came in a third-and-eight situation at the Foxcroft 36-yard line.
Caruso threw a three-yard pass to him in the right flat and Topolski sprinted toward the sideline marker, breaking a few tackles, to pick up the first down by a yard and extend the drive.
“I saw the chains and I knew it was a big third down. We needed (the first down) because we were backed up in our territory,” said Topolski.
On the next play, Sands went up for a Caruso pass between two Hermon defensive backs to snare the ball.
“We trust Griffin to make the throws. We just go up and catch them,” said Sands. “We do what we have to do. When we aren’t moving the ball, we know we have to make big plays in those situations.”
Holmes, a junior, scored on the next play when he broke some tackles up the middle and cut to the right before racing into the end zone with 7:33 left in the third period.
The Ponies used a terrific catch by Topolski in the fourth quarter while he was on his back to set up Harvey’s field goal.
He slid to the ground and was able to snare Caruso’s pass just before it hit the ground.
“Thanks to the quarterback. He threw a good ball. I saw the ball was low. I knew I had to make an adjustment because of the way the defender was playing me. So I just made the adjustment and everything else took care of itself,” said Topolski.
The Foxcroft defense was exemplary.
The Ponies held Hermon to just 134 total yards of offense and 36 of them came on the Hawks’ last drive.
“We watched a lot of film and we stuck together,” said junior defensive end Aidan Bryant, who had two sacks. “We called out their motion and called out their plays.”
“Fundamentally we talked about tackling, taking on blocks, not skirting blocks, not taking the easy way out. That’s all,” said White.
Hermon coach Kyle Gallant said his team “missed a few tackles in some key spots but that’s a really good football team. They’re undefeated and atop Class D North for a reason.
“Our guys played super hard. I’m super proud of them. We have to clean some stuff up and move forward,” Gallant added.
Caruso completed all five of his passes in the second half for 71 yards after completing three of seven for 36 in the first half with an interception.
Sands caught four passes for 63 yards. Harvey was the game’s leading rusher with six carries for 71 yards. Holmes had 44 yards on 11 carries.
Hermon quarterback Ethan Curtis completed five of 13 passes for 101 yards and he was intercepted twice. His receivers had three drops.
Brothers Max and Sam Hopkins each had 28 yards rushing to lead the Hawks.
Hermon had its best drive of the game in the first quarter, marching to the Foxcroft nine yard line.
But Steven Li and Jaxson Zimmerman threw Bruce Coulter for a two-yard loss on third-and-six and Curtis’s fourth-down pass was dropped.
Linebackers Holmes from Foxcroft and Max Hopkins from Hermon turned in exceptional defensive performances.
