FREEPORT — The Foxcroft Academy football team was averaging nearly 50 points per game this season. But Coach Danny White knew that the Ponies were going to need to play a different style Friday night against Freeport.

“The idea was to run the ball a little bit more, if we could,” White said. “Get yardage and get first downs, and run the clock and keep it away from them.”

The new style suited Foxcroft just fine. Caden Crocker ran for 118 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries, and the clock-killing Ponies earned a 24-10 victory that gave them firm control of first place in Class D with one week to go in the regular season.

In a game with no penalties, the defending state champion Ponies improved to 6-1. The Falcons fell to 4-3.

“It removes all the doubt,” said quarterback Wyatt Rayfield, who completed 9 of 11 passes for 109 yards. “This is still our class.”

Foxcroft put its high-octane offense on the shelf for a methodical attack. The Ponies had only five possessions, not including two kneeldowns. They scored points on all but one, went 5 for 5 on third down in the second half, and prevented the Falcons from getting the momentum-turning stop they needed.

“They’re explosive. We really respect their offensive ability,” White said. “We established the line of scrimmage up front, and all of our backs did a great job chugging for 3, 4 yards a pop.”

Leading the way was Crocker, who gained many of his yards dragging Falcons defenders along with him.

“Caden Crocker kind of asserted his dominance this game, and kind of left his stamp on it,” White said.

Freeport stuffed the Ponies on fourth down on their first drive, and pinned them with a punt that rolled out of bounds at the 1. Crocker instantly flipped the field, taking a sweep right, turning upfield and running through a group of tacklers for a 75-yard run. Five plays later, he scored from the 4 to make it 7-0.

Freeport answered with an 80-yard drive that was finished off when Aidan Heath found Max Peters for a 6-yard score, but Kemsley Marsters (10 carries, 79 yards) gave Foxcroft a 10-7 lead with a 34-yard field goal at the first-half buzzer.

The Ponies kept up the attack in the second half, capping a 13-play, 80-yard drive with a 1-yard Crocker run for a 17-7 lead with 3:38 to go in the third.

After Freeport responded with a 26-yard field goal from Alex Graver, making it 17-10 with 8:55 to play, Foxcroft went 64 yards in 10 plays, with Crocker’s 3-yard scoring run putting the game essentially out of reach with 2:15 to go.

“I’ve got to give credit to our guys up front. They’re the reason we won this game. They dominated this entire thing,” Crocker said. “We were telling ourselves that we’re the best team. We shouldn’t be playing to them, they should be coming to us.”

Freeport ran for 116 yards on 24 carries and got 112 passing yards from Heath, but its defense couldn’t get off the field when it had to late.

“It’s one of those things where you’re going to look back and it’s going to be situational football that made the difference,” Freeport Coach Paul St. Pierre said. “The fact that we put them in third down positions is good, but we’ve got to get those stops.”