Mt. Ararat captains, from left, Kurt Coen, Dash Farrell, Aiden Christensen, Trent Bailey and Thomas Sandelin with the plaque the Eagles won for defeating Camden Hills in Friday’s 8-man Large School semifinal. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

ROCKPORT — The last time Mt. Ararat played football at Camden Hills, the Eagles gave up a 24-point first-half lead and walked back to the buses with their heads hanging low and feet dragging.

The Eagles remembered that feeling Friday and channeled it towards a 48-12 victory, sending them back to the buses with wide smiles and a regional championship plaque.

“We’re over the moon,” junior running back Nick Doughty said. “We’re exhausted, but Coach (Frank True) always says we got to hate losing more than we like winning. The feeling after being up 24 in the (first half) and losing on such a stupid play was awful. Then being able to come back and get a running clock in the fourth quarter, it’s indescribable how good we feel.”

With the upset over top-seeded Camden Hills, fourth-seeded Mt. Ararat (8-2) advances to the 8-man Large School state championship game against second-seeded Greely (8-1) next Saturday in Kennebunk. It will be the Eagles’ first state final appearance since winning the inaugural eight-man championship in 2019.

“Time of possession was huge against these guys,” senior running back Dash Farrell said of Friday night’s game plan. “We knew we needed to work the clock, run the ball down, just play hard-nosed offense and defense, bring the aggression on every play and try to establish the momentum early on for us.”

The smash-and-dash duo of Doughty (18 carries, 126 yards rushing, two TDs) and Farrell (28 carries, 201 yards, three TDs) did just that. The two traded handoffs on the opening drive before the Farrell spun into the end zone from 8 yards out.

The Mt. Ararat (8-2) defense forced Camden Hills (7-2) to punt, then the offense marched to the 1-yard line early in the second quarter. Quarterback Trent Bailey snuck the ball in from there, giving the Eagles a 12-0 lead.

The visitors forced another three-and-out, but Camden Hills quickly regained possession by jumping on top of a Farrell fumble. Three plays later, sophomore quarterback Ryder Lombardo found Isaac Dutille in the end zone for a 27-yard scoring connection. Lombardo, starting for the injured Hollis Schwalm, completed six of his 15 passes for 55 yards.

Mt. Ararat’s Adrian Reyes (76) prepares to block for Dash Farrell (11) in the 8-man Large School semifinal. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

The Windjammers attempted and recovered an onside kick, but the momentum was quickly blown away when Farrell stepped in front of a pass near midfield and returned the interception close to the red zone. He later punched it in from 2 yards out.

Down but not out for the count, Camden Hills almost struck back with 64-yard touchdown pass, but the play was called back for illegal man downfield. From that point forward, the home team only mustered 47 more yards of offense.

“We had some injuries in the last game of the year,” Windjammers head coach Chris Christie said, “and those guys just didn’t heal up. Guys stepped up, but just didn’t go our way today. That’s a good football team, Mt. Ararat.”

The Eagles’ lead grew quickly after halftime, on a Doughty 21-yard touchdown run and a long pick-six from Aidan Ramsay to make it 32-6, but Braden Beveridge responded by taking the ensuing kickoff over 70 yards to the house for the Windjammers.

Unbothered by the potential of another blown lead, Mt. Ararat put its foot on the pedal, and Doughty (11-yard run) and Farrell (12-yard run) each scored once more each before time expired.

Mt. Ararat’s Aidan Ramsay (5) celebrates his interception return for a touchdown with teammate Hunter Thibeault (54) in the 8-man Large School semifinal Friday. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

“The first time we came out, we were making a lot of mental mistakes,” Frank True, Mt. Ararat’s coach, said. “We had guys pulling the wrong way and pulling into each other. We had a lot of breakdowns on our own, and you can’t do that against a good team, because they’re going to take advantage of it …

“Tonight, we limited those mistakes. We had our ground game going. We changed up a little bit of our blocking schemes, on how we suspected they were going to line up to us. Dash and Nick just took advantage of it and ran hard.”

In the state championship game, Mt. Ararat will try to avenge its other loss this season, a 30-26 setback to Greely in Topsham on Oct. 19. The Rangers reached the state final by beating third-seeded Lake Region 40-6 on Friday.