Joe Fitzpatrick came running off the field after his first carry Saturday, yelling “My helmet, my helmet.” The training staff scurried around to fix some broken straps on his gold head gear.

Fitzpatrick, the leader rusher and scorer in Class A, was soon back on the field and all was right with the Cheverus football team.

Fitzpatrick, a 206-pound battering ram, finished with 196 yards and two touchdowns on 35 carries to lift top-ranked Cheverus to a 35-6 win over No. 4 Bangor in an Eastern Class A football semifinal game at Boulos Stadium.

The Stags (8-1) didn’t show any rust after their bye week and earned a rematch with the region’s other top seed, No. 2 Windham in the Eastern A final. The Eagles rallied to beat Portland 21-17 on Friday. Cheverus will host Windham at 12:30 p.m. Saturday for the chance to play in the state final.

Windham dealt Cheverus its only loss, 35-7 on Sept. 27 at Cheverus.

Against Bangor, Cheverus defensive end Zordan Holman recovered three fumbles, while defensive tackle Frank Curran intercepted a pass.

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Justin Johnston scored on a pair of 1-yard dives in the second half.

“We’re a run-first, pass-second team and I thought we made some plays,” said Cheverus Coach John Wolfgram. “Joe’s our leader. He ran very hard.”

Later, Fitzpatrick explained the cause of his helmet problems.

“They (Bangor) were ripping my helmet off,” he said.

When Fitzpatrick returned for the series after his helmet troubles, he started ripping off good chunks of yardage and dragging tacklers with him. He continued to do so as long as he was in the game.

Fitzpatrick started that series with a 12-yard gain. Later in the drive, quarterback Isaac Dunn hit Holman with a pass and Holman ran 32 yards to the 19. Fitzpatrick finished the drive with a 4-yard TD run.

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On Bangor’s next series, Holman sacked quarterback Jeff Lewis, who was spun around and fumbled. At the end of a wild scramble, Holman fell on the ball in the end zone and Cheverus was up 14-0.

The two scores came within a minute of each other.

“We had a mindset that we wanted to take charge right from the start,” said Fitzpatrick. “We pride ourselves on our toughness and grittiness.”

Cheverus’ defenders put pressure on Lewis all game. When they weren’t sacking him, he was forced out of the pocket for a hurried throw. Cheverus also contained Dane Johnson, the second leading rusher in Eastern A. Unable to run consistently, the Rams didn’t have much success through the air with the exception of one long pass, a 67-yard scoring pass from reserve quarterback Brian Peirce to Joe Johnson late in the third quarter.

Fitzpatrick added a 6-yard touchdown at the start of the second quarter to make it 21-0.

“Fitzpatrick was running with a lot of determination,” said Bangor Coach Mark Hackett. “He’s the best player we’ve seen. He wills his team to wins. I don’t think Cheverus liked losing too much.”


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