SACO — Can one play really be the difference in a 23-point football win?

Yes. Anyone at Thornton Academy’s 35-12 Class A South win Saturday against longtime rival Bonny Eagle would tell you the same.

It happened with just under eight minutes to play in the third quarter. The Scots were trailing 14-6 and had first-and-goal at the 3 after they received the second-half kickoff and crisply moved 69 yards in nine plays. Taking a direct snap, rugged junior running back Colby McCormack plowed toward the goal line.

McCormack had shown he was tough to bring down and would gain 120 yards on 15 carries after starter Connor Johnson left because of an injury. At most, he was inches shy of the goal line, but neither a touchdown call – nor a whistle – was forthcoming. McCormack made second and third efforts to reach the end zone while being pushed slightly backward and to his right.

Suddenly, Thornton sophomore linebacker Brennan Tabor was running the other way with the ball after stripping it from McCormack’s grasp. Tabor kept running all the way to the other end zone with a 99-yard fumble return.

“I just took it out of his hands and the rest is history,” Tabor said. “I heard the crowd screaming. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a big touchdown for varsity football.”

Instead of trailing by two points with a chance to tie, suddenly Bonny Eagle was down 21-6.

“We thought he was in, and if he wasn’t in, his forward progress was stopped, but that’s not how the officials called it,” said Bonny Eagle Coach Kevin Cooper. “The call’s not going to change. We have to live with the call. I wish we had handled that adverse situation a little better. We kind of let that get to us, I think, and all of a sudden TA’s up by multiple scores now, when it looked like we had a chance to tie the game.”

As Thornton Coach Kevin Kezal said, it was “a 14-point turnaround. It goes from being tied to us being up two scores. It changed the whole complexion of the game. I didn’t see. It was just like a big (pile of bodies). I saw Brennan come out with it. It went our way. He made a heck of a play and ripped the ball out.”

Thornton improved to 3-1, its one loss to Bedford, New Hampshire. Bonny Eagle is 2-2. Both teams face unbeaten opponents next. Thornton is at Noble; while Bonny Eagle hosts South Portland.

Bonny Eagle moved the ball again on its next possession but was obviously rattled. That drive ended on a fourth-down intentional grounding by Scots quarterback Colin Moran.

Thornton used its power running game to squash any comeback hopes, adding 13-yard touchdown runs in the fourth quarter by quarterback Wyatt Benoit (10 carries, 82 yards) and senior Mauricio Sunderland (19 carries, 108 yards), who shared running back duties with Connor Ayoob (12 carries, 60 yards).

“A lot of their guys play both ways ,so if we just keep pounding the ball and hitting them hard, they get tired,” Ayoob said.

Statistically, the game appeared even. Thornton finished with 303 yards, 263 on the ground. Bonny Eagle had 302 yards, with Moran doing a good job of running away from the rush and throwing downfield. He was 12 of 19 for 166 yards with two touchdowns – a 33-yarder to C.J. Cooper in the first half that cut Thornton’s lead to 7-6, and then a 17-yard connection for the game’s final score with 3:28 to play.

Benoit also used his legs to create plays. On Thornton’s game-opening drive, which ended with a 3-yard touchdown run by Ayoob, he scampered away from pressure to find Jackson Paradis on a third-down conversion. Thornton pushed its lead to 14-6 on a 7-yard touchdown throw 21 seconds before halftime, as Benoit spotted 6-foot-3 sophomore Noah Fullerton, who went high to snare the throw against tight coverage.