SCARBOROUGH — Issiah Bachelder was playing his first game at quarterback for Portland in the season opener Friday night at Scarborough.
Bachelder, a junior, spent much of the night handing off to his talented running backs while mixing in an occasional bootleg or pass.
Bachelder directed a high-powered offense that jumped out to a 20-0 lead after an early goal-line stand, and the Bulldogs went on to a 47-26 win in a Class A football game.
Afterward, Bachelder thanked the game officials.
“Our coaches work hard, we work hard, and the officials come out and give it their best effort. They deserve a pat on the back,” said Bachelder, who scored a touchdown and threw a touchdown pass.
Once the Bulldogs withstood Scarborough’s opening drive, they turned to their ground game, featuring George Chaisson-Lapine, Joe Esposito and Jake Knop.
Knop got the scoring started with a 1-yard run. Later in the first quarter, Bachelder passed 18 yards to Esposito, who was stopped at the 2. Esposito scored on the next play.
Jake Hunnewell then recovered a Scarborough fumble at the 16, and Bachelder scored from the 1 to make it 20-0 after John Williams’ extra point.
The Red Storm got on the board on a 31-yard run by quarterback Jack Hughes early in the third quarter. But each time Scarborough threatened to get back into the game, the Bulldogs had an answer.
“The coaches gave us a good game plan,” said Bachelder. “All the backs ran well and the line gave them the holes.”
Scarborough received the opening kickoff and quickly drove deep into Portland territory. But the Red Storm were stopped on fourth-and-goal at the 4.
“That was huge,” said Bachelder. “It lifted all of our spirits for the rest of the game.”
Bachelder started in the secondary in last year’s Thanksgiving Day game against Deering, but this was his first game with the spotlight on him.
“I was excited. I used to go to a lot of the Portland practices as a kid. It’s always been a dream of mine to play quarterback for Portland,” he said.
At the end of the first half, defensive back Dylan Bolduc intercepted a pass near Scarborough’s goal line and returned it to midfield.
Bolduc made an even bigger play in the second half.
After the Red Storm closed to within 33-26 on a 5-yard pass from Hughes to Reese Lagerquist with 11:53 remaining, Bolduc took the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. Williams’ point after put Portland ahead 40-26.
Knop added a 21-yard scoring run in the final minutes.
“I was happy with the way played in the second half,” said Scarborough Coach Lance Johnson. “Anytime we got close, we shot ourselves in the foot. In the first half, we were inside the 25 three times and didn’t score.
“The Portland quarterback did a nice job on running the bootleg and made some nice throws.”
Johnson said nothing he saw from Portland surprised him.
“Portland has three active linebackers and three, maybe four, really good running backs, he said.
“Portland made a lot more plays than we did.”
Hughes had his moments throwing the ball, but the Bulldogs’ defense applied pressure for most of the game. He finished with three touchdown passes and also rushed for a touchdown.
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