Three quarters deep on Saturday, the Stags appeared poised to soundly defeat a Windham team who’d battered them in the regular season. And then victory slipped from Cheverus’s grasp – or, the Eagles tore it away, rather.

Five minutes to play, and Josh Dugas tied the score on his second field goal of the day, sent the game into OT, where Tanner Laberge capped the comeback by blocking a Stags PAT kick to secure a 21-20 W and the Class A East title.

“It was just one of those uphill battles,” said Windham head coach Matt Perkins. “Back and forth; and you knew they weren’t going to lay down to us…Their staff obviously is phenomenal, they do great things. And we’ve got a good staff, and the kids believe in what we’re doing.”

“It was just a hell of a job by everyone on our team,” said Eagle’s running back Dylan Koza. “Playing to the best of their ability. Now we’ve just got to keep moving on.”

Windham’s win – in hostile territory; that is, at Cheverus – bumps them to 9-1 on the year. That lone loss came at the paws of Portland, a notorious upset the two teams eventually revisited, when they met in the postseason semifinals. The Eagles, of course, emerged triumphant from their second go-round with the Bulldogs. That earned them the matchup with the Stags, who now exit 2014 at 8-2.

Saturday’s action unfolded tensely from the very get-go. Cheverus possessed first, pushed all the way to Windham’s 27 on the strength of their runners, including standout Joe Fitzpatrick. On fourth and four, though, their field goal attempt went awry: the snap floated high, and the kick never happened.

The Eagles took over on downs, but gained negligible ground before needing to punt; the Stags’ follow-up drive then required a dozen plays or more, including a conversion on fourth down, before finally grabbing first and goal at the Windham one, where it became obvious that the Eagles’ defense needed to dig their heels in a little deeper: Justin Johnston carried a short TD for the Stags, and they went up 7-0.

On the ensuing series, the Eagles found themselves forced to punt yet again: On both sides of the ball, Cheverus seemed to hold the day’s edge. Or did they? Fitzpatrick carried on the first play of their next possession, trucked the ball a long 28 yards, but the gain evaporated on a costly infraction. Looking slightly deflated, the Stags began again, this time from their own 15, but advanced just six yards before having to punt.

So Windham had worked some kinks out defensively; would their attack also improve? It appeared to. QB Desmond Leslie found Eric Webb for a quick six, then ran the ball himself for another four; Tanner Laberge jumped right for 13 and Dylan Koza skittered right again for 15 more. Soon – even despite a holding flag – the Eagles had reached Cheverus’s 19.

They couldn’t get to the Stags’ goal line, though, so on fourth and 10 at the 12, they brought out ace kicker Josh Dugas to split the uprights. 7-3, and Windham had a foothold on the board.

With 1:17 remaining in the half, Cheverus took control once more. Fitzpatrick grabbed 18 up the right on the team’s first snap, but the drive soon died on the table, ended on an Eagles high note when they sacked Stags QB Isaac Dunn.

The break arrived, the score still tight.

Both teams’ defenses had propped them up through the first half, and Perkins knew it. “Heck yeah,” he said of the back-and-forth battle to protect. “The secret for us – we just made adjustments. They were getting certain things on us, and we were trying to stop the leaks as they came through.”

Windham accomplished nothing on their series to start the third. Cheverus, on the other hand, promptly earned another TD – and the momentum – when Fitzpatrick busted loose of the pack at his squad’s 37 and dashed 63 yards to put the Stags on top 14-3.

“He had a game,” Perkins said of Fitzpatrick. “We weren’t going to keep him under a hundred today, like we did last time. And they did a lot of great game-planning to adjust, and put us in situations where we had to adjust on the fly.”

Cheverus was edging further ahead, and not just numerically. They seemed to accrue mental points too: A feeling settled on the stadium, on spectators and likely players as well, that the Stags were scoring touchdowns – at one point, their fan contingent chanted something to that effect – while the Eagles struggled to get within field goal range.

Windham needed, desperately, a pivotal moment, a turnaround. They wouldn’t get it, though, on their following possession, a three-and-out to the ugly tune of seven total yards.

They would, however, catch the critical first glimpse of a rally on Cheverus’s drive. After several rapid-fire runs for solid advances, the Stags fumbled – and Koza recovered. No, the turnover didn’t result in Windham points, but it did prove Cheverus was vincible. It juiced a palpable upswing in their mood along the sideline, so when their defense quickly stopped the Stags, earned the Eagles the ball back, they were poised to produce.

Which they did. Zach Davis sparked an 80-yard scoring drive with a long run left for the first 22. Leslie to Eric Webb pushed the team to Cheverus’s 31, and Leslie to Davis eventually gave them first and goal at the Stags’ 10. A pair of Leslie runs found the end zone, and another Leslie run on the two-point conversion set the board at 14-11.

No longer in total control, Cheverus may have been rattled; they reacted on the kickoff as if they were, fumbling the ball and allowing Windham’s Griffin Jacobson to recover. All of 17 seconds had elapsed, and now the Eagles were on the offense yet again – at the Stags’ 20, no less.

They capitalized on the chance: pushed, on a handful of short Leslie and Koza runs, to fourth and two at the 12. They set up to go for it, hoping to draw a motion penalty, but failing to do so, gave Dugas the ball once more. Dugas ably delivered his three, tying things up at 14-all.

There remained five minutes in regulation, but neither squad could wring points from the time, and OT arrived. Windham attacked first, Koza dashing easily left for the TD and the Eagles’ first lead of the day. Dugas nailed the PAT, and all eyes turned to Cheverus’s offense. Could they match the Eagles? It was match them, or go home.

It took the Stags a pair of snaps, but they got the TD. Still alive. Everything rode on the PAT kick now. The teams set at the line; the ball snapped backwards. Patrick Mourmouras’s foot came round, made contact – and Laberge broke through, threw a forearm up, connected to deflect, to hand Windham the game: 21-20 the final.

“We call it ‘War Horse,’” Laberge said, struggling a little for words. “We call our field goal block ‘War Horse,’ when we stack it up. We’d been doing it on our left side all game, and then we switched it to the other side for that last one, and it worked.”

“We said it, right when they scored, ‘We have to block this field goal.’ Me and Griffin Jacobson on the end got a good jump, and it just happened. Right on the forearm…I looked up and everybody was going nuts on the sideline. No better feeling than that.”

“We put in block all year,” Perkins said, “we work it on different sides and different levels. We had a switch at halftime about what side we’re coming from. Hey, he came hot off the edge; he’s a gamer, man. That kid, he pitched in the Western Maine Championship last year; he knows how to play in clutch situations.”

Windham tussles with Thornton Academy at Fitzpatrick Stadium this coming Saturday, Nov. 22, at 11 a.m. for the state championship. The Trojans offed 2013 kings Bonny Eagle in the regional finals for the honor.

“Can’t wait,” said Koza, who had no particular strategy in mind for the bout. “It’s just another team.”

Windham’s Tanner Laberge dances round a Cheverus tackler.Dylan Koza carries for the Eagles at Cheverus on Saturday. Koza scored the Eagles’ OT touchdown.Eric Webb pulls in a long pass along the sideline.Windham QB Desmond Leslie barrels forward on the keeper.Windham’s Zach Davis pulls in a pass from QB Desmond Leslie, watches from the corner of his eye as Stag Isaac Dunn rolls in to wrap him up.Eagle Dylan Koza (25) takes flight over Hero-of-the-Day Tanner Laberge (23) as their coaches rush the field after Laberge blocked a Cheverus PAT kick to complete Windham’s comeback victory.Tanner Laberge – struggling with emotion, exhaustion, delirium or all three – gets support from his teammates after making the game-winning play at Cheverus Saturday afternoon.The Eagles hoist their Eastern Maine Class A Championship plaque to the crowd.