OLD ORCHARD BEACH — The Old Orchard Beach football team started both halves out with a touchdown but, ultimately, the Seagulls fell 29-12 to Dirigo on Friday night.
With five minutes left in the first quarter, the Seagulls (1-3) scored the first touchdown of the night.
The drive to the end zone was seamless. Dale Lord stood at the 49-yard line and zoomed a pass to Sean Pratt who caught the ball at the 23-yard line and carried it to the 15. The Gulls realigned and Lord passed the ball to Rudy Mago who carried it into the end zone and produced a score of 6-0.
“I like the way we started both halves. I thought we kind of took control in the start of both halves,” said Old Orchard Beach head coach Dean Plante.
One minute after OOB’s touchdown, the Cougars (4-0) answered back with of a touchdown.
At the 7-yard line, Dirigo quarterback Cole Brown handed the ball to Mike Gorham and he carried it into the end zone.
At the end of the first quarter, Dirigo led by one point 7-6.
Dirigo would increase its lead to 9-6 after securing a safety in the second quarter.
Old Orchard Beach had their back to their goal line and Lord fumbled the snap. He quickly regained possession but was tackled by Dirigo.
With a minute left in the first half, Dirigo was encroaching on the Gulls’ end zone again but this time they would not be score instead they would be stopped by the defense.
The Cougars stood at the 21-yard line ready to strike again but as Brown looked for a pass, he was sacked in the backfield by Jaden Davies.
Brown tried to regain his composure but he was sacked again by Bradley Houle. The Cougars ended up punting on a 4-39 down.
“We rallied. It’s nice to see that when your backs against your own goal line, you can do somethings well. I thought that we executed very well that defensive series. After a few mistakes early, it would have been easy to let them roll in but we didn’t and I thought that gave us some momentum going into half time,” said Plante.
At the 8:25 mark in the third quarter, the Gulls would score their final touchdown of the night.
After several penalty calls, Old Orchard Beach was positioned at the 11-yard line. Once Lord took possession of the snap, he passed to Pratt in the end zone for the score to give the Seagulls a 12-9 lead.
“A thing of beauty it turns out to be but we had actually called something else and things didn’t go as planned and it was an ad lib — Sean being athletic and going up and getting it,” said Plante.
The Cougars took back the lead with 7:49 left in the third quarter.
Dirigo had a first-and-goal at the 9 when Brown handed the ball off to Alex Gorham, who carried it into the end zone.
With seconds left in the third quarter, Dirigo would score again. At the 0:21 seconds mark, Gorham rushed 62 yards to produce a score of 22-12.
“When we came out and answered with a touch down to start the second half, I thought we needed to get that next stop. They did a really good job of putting together a drive that went the length of the field and took the lead. When we got the momentum, we didn’t do a good job of maintaining it and then it felt like we were playing uphill the rest of the game,” said Plante.
With 5:21 left in the contest, the Cougars scored their final touchdown.
Brown was aligned with another 1-goal drive, this time he handed the ball to Dallas Berry, who carried the ball five-yard to create the final 29-12 score.
“Lack of focus, lining up wrong, not recognizing formations cost us at times. There was some good and some bad tonight,” said Plante.
Old Orchard Beach will travel to Telstar next Saturday.
— Sports Writer Sienna Barstow can be reached at sbarstow@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports