GORHAM — Gorham High School junior Branden Denis, one of two people killed Sunday when the car his mother was driving on Route 302 crashed in Bridgton, was remembered Monday by football teammates and family members as a quiet leader and enthusiastic hunter – and a big guy who gave great hugs.

Denis, 16, and Eric S. Morey, 35, of Portland, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, police said Monday.

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Gorham High School football coach Andy Hager discusses the death of lineman Branden Denis in a car accident Sunday. “Everything he did was for the team,” one teammate said. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Candice Tucker, Denis’ mother, was trying to pass another car headed south near the Naples town line at 5:50 p.m. when she lost control, went off the road and crashed into trees, police said. Morey was Tucker’s boyfriend, Denis’ family said.

The preliminary indication is that excessive speed contributed to the crash, police said.

Police Chief Kevin Schofield released few new details Monday beyond the identities of the people in the car. It’s unclear whether any of them were wearing seat belts or whether that would have made a difference given the impact with the trees.

There was no word on whether any charges would be brought against Tucker.

Her driving history is marked by several offenses, including a license revocation for being a habitual offender in 2005. Her license was suspended initially in 2004 for demerit points with the secretary of state, including two convictions for speeding. She also was charged with driving on a revoked or suspended license three times, and this spring she was charged twice with driving an uninspected vehicle. In 2002 she was fined for drunken driving.

Tucker, 34, was previously involved in two crashes in which she was at least partly responsible, according to the Maine State Police motor vehicle accident database, although nobody was injured. One of those, in Gorham in 2005, was because of improper passing and resulted in Tucker being charged with leaving the scene of an accident and driving on a suspended license.

Tucker was taken to Bridgton Memorial Hospital after Sunday’s accident, then transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she was listed in fair condition Monday night.

Morey is survived by three young children, according to members of Denis’ family. Efforts to reach his friends or relatives Monday were unsuccessful.

The Gorham High School football team took Monday off from classes and stuck together, telling stories and absorbing their loss.

The team had returned to school Monday fresh from a victory Friday – their first in more than two years – only to learn that one of their starting linemen had died in a car accident the night before.

Senior captain Brendan Mercier said Denis was a “workhorse” who had doubled the amount of weight he could squat, from 200 to 400 pounds, in the off-season.

“Everything he did was for the team,” Mercier said.

The football team was his family and the field “his home away from home,” said Joe Mutombo, a junior and a captain.

Friends since second grade, they motivated each other to keep getting better.

“One more rep, one more set,” Mutombo said they’d tell each other.

Mutombo said that when he and Denis were growing up, his friend was chatty and energetic, but he changed as he got older.

He became “a quiet leader,” Mercier said. “Good kid, can’t stress that enough.”

Students put up a shrine outside the weight room, with posters on the wall and his football jersey, helmet and cleats arranged on top of a water cooler. Meanwhile, family members gathered at the Steep Falls home of Denis’ paternal grandparents, Kevin and Susan Denis.

“He gave the greatest hugs you ever had,” Michelle DeBruin, a great aunt, said on behalf of the family. “He was a sweet, loving young man. … He had a heart of gold.”

Denis “was a fabulous big brother” to his two younger siblings, Austin and Abbi, she said. He was tall – 6-foot-4 – and powerful, earning him the nickname “Superman,” according to friends and family.

In addition to football, Denis enjoyed hunting with his father, David, his grandfather Kevin, and his maternal grandmother Gemma Long, DeBruin said. “Deer, turkey, moose, you name it,” DeBruin said. “He got his deer every year.”

As football practice got started Monday, a couple of teammates hung back to put up Denis’ number – 64 – in athletic tape on the locker room door.

Although they were going to take it easy at practice Monday, they planned to go all-out the rest of the week, getting ready to take on Fryeburg Academy on Saturday, Mercier said.

“If we win we go to the playoffs,” he said, “and we’re going to win for him.”

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