WELLS – If there were any doubts Wells High is now an elite football team, they were quickly erased Friday night.
Very quickly.
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The second-ranked Warriors struck early and often to rout No. 3 Cape Elizabeth 47-7 Friday night in a Western Class B semifinal at Memorial Field. Wells went up 14-0 in the first quarter and then broke the game open with stout defense and big-play offense.
“Honestly, when you play Cape, you go in anticipating a 12-10 game, something like that,” said Wells Coach Tim Roche. “You expect a tough battle. It was 14-7 last time we played, so I was wondering what this would be like.
“And then when we went up 14-0, I knew we were in a good spot. I know our defense is pretty good.”
It was good enough to shut down the Capers, who were without starting quarterback Derek Roberts. He suffered a concussion last week. Cape’s only touchdown came from the defense.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” said Wells defensive end Josh Ingalls, who had a game-changing play. “We work on our defense all the time. And once we got going, everything kept going our way. We just had it going.”
Wells (10-1) will play top-ranked Mountain Valley in Rumford at 12:30 p.m. next Saturday in the regional final. Cape finished 6-4, losing four of its last five games.
“It’s been the story of our season, we just keep backing ourselves up,” said Capers Coach Aaron Filieo. “In the grand scheme of the season, we just ran out of bullets. We felt good coming in.
“In the end, we just could never fix the problem of making mistakes. It’s been our issue all year and we’ve never been able to remedy it. And that’s on the coaches.”
Wells struck quickly. After stopping the Capers on fourth-and-inches at the Cape 30, the Warriors scored in just four plays. J.T. Sherburne got the touchdown on a 16-yard run. Joey Spinelli made the first of five point-after kicks for a 7-0 lead just 3:10 in.
With just over three minutes left in the quarter, the Warriors’ defense struck. On third-and-7 from the Cape 26, Ingalls came in untouched from the backside and hit quarterback Kyle Danielson. The ball popped loose and was recovered by Wells at the 11.
On third down from the 10, Paul McDonough fired a pass to Ingalls, who tipped the ball before grabbing it for the touchdown.
Cape punted on the first play of the second quarter. On the second play, Louis DiTomasso broke free for a 68-yard touchdown, and it was 21-0.
It stayed that way until Chad Whitten burst up the middle for a 79-yard touchdown run, getting a key block from Sherburne, to make it 28-0 with 1:40 left in the half.
Michael Moats returned the second-half kickoff 79 yards for a touchdown. Then he intercepted a pass, setting up a 31-yard scoring run by DiTomasso.
“We came out a little nervous because it was Cape and they always play us tough,” said Moats. “But Coach told us before the game, if this was going to be your last game, put everything you have into it. So we did.
“Words really cannot express my feelings right now. I don’t know what to say.”
Wells did it without two starting offensive linemen who sat because they were tossed out of last week’s game.
DiTomasso finished with 102 rushing yards and Whitten had 94. McDonough, the difference in the first game between the teams, didn’t rush the ball once.
“Next week is going to be fun,” said Roche. “These kids haven’t experienced a championship game at Mountain Valley, and it’s an awesome atmosphere. Let’s go up there and take care of business.”
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at: mlowe@pressherald.com
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