NEWPORT – At Oceanside High, they’ll remember Saturday’s 23-14 victory at Nokomis as the first in the new school’s football history.

At Nokomis, it will go down as another one that slipped away.

Ahead 14-7 at the start of the fourth quarter, Nokomis had the ball first-and-goal inside the Mariners’ 1. On the first play, quarterback Nate Michaud tried to sneak across the goal line but fumbled into the end zone. The ball was recovered by Eli MacDougal of Oceanside.

“It really stings,” Nokomis Coach Haggie Pratt said. “You’re on the verge of putting the game away. You’re 1 inch away from putting the game away and things fall apart. That’s football, and that’s high school kids.”

Oceanside later recovered a fumble on its 27 with 8:17 left, then went the distance in five plays, scoring when Dan Stone barreled in from 2 yards. Stone added the 2-point conversion and instead of being down a pair of touchdowns, Oceanside had a 15-14 lead with 6:22 to play.

Dan Hendricks returned an interception 46 yards for a touchdown with 23 seconds left to seal it for Oceanside, which formed this year with the merger of Rockland and Georges Valley.

“We started off really bad, but we came out in the second half fired up and ready to play,” said Stone, who ran for a game-high 101 yards on 18 carries.

“That fumble at the 1 was an absolute huge stop. That’s football. We had our share in the first half and they capitalized,” Oceanside Coach Woody Moore said. “The nice thing is you can have all that adversity in the first half, and still have guys that will come out and do the little things for their teammates to get it done.”

Oceanside turned the ball over four times in the first half on five possessions but the Warriors only capitalized once, when Austin Chipman scored on a 1-yard run with 7:09 left in the first quarter to give Nokomis a 6-0 lead.

Four of Nokomis’ five turnovers came in the second half, leading to three Oceanside scoring drives.

“I’m proud of the stuff the kids did. I mean, they moved the football. They moved it and they moved it and they moved the football,” Pratt said. “The poise to finish, it wasn’t there yet. I think that’s the typical way a team plays that doesn’t have a lot of wins on the resume.”

Stone scored on a 3-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter, and David Harrison’s extra point gave the Mariners a 7-6 lead.

“We made a couple of adjustments at halftime with our run-blocking schemes and our pass protection. Really, it came down to the guys turned it up a notch,” Moore said.

“We were as flat as I’ve ever seen a football team in the first half.”

WATERVILLE 28, MT. DESERT ISLAND 3: J.T. Whitten rushed for 173 yards and three touchdowns, and kicked four extra points to lead the Purple Panthers in an opener at Waterville.

Aaron Saucier of Waterville added 76 rushing yards and delivered several crushing tackles from free safety.

WINTHROP 41, TELSTAR 14: Jared Hanson threw three touchdown passes for Winthrop, which put the game away with four touchdowns in the first quarter of an opener at Bethel.

Dan Miles, Damion Hanson and Drew Startton each had a touchdown reception for the Ramblers.

LISBON 24, OAK HILL 14: Lisbon recovered from a 14-12 halftime deficit and won an opener at Wales.

Quincy Thompson clinched it with a 31-yard run with 9:27 left in the third quarter. There was no further scoring.