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

Heading into the eight-man Large School semifinal game Saturday at Camden Hills, the Mt. Ararat football team had a little extra motivation.

The Eagles (8-2) wanted to secure a berth in the state final, and they wanted to avenge a regular season loss to the Windjammers. Mt. Ararat accomplished both in a 48-12 victory.

Camden sank the Eagles 36-20 in October.

“It was huge,” senior running back/linebacker Dash Farrell said. “All of us hate losing, it just made us angry. We showed up to practice an hour early this week. All of us out to the field working, going over coverage, working on our offense.”

The Eagles (8-2) will next play Greely (8-1) in the eight-man Large state final at 11 a.m. Saturday at Kennebunk High.

The Mt. Ararat defense held the Camden Hills offense to 92 total yards, one touchdown and forced two interceptions. The Windjammers were without starting quarterback Hollis Schwalm (380 total yards, 5 TDs in Week 5) due to injury, which Farrell acknowledged was a factor but added the extra defensive practice reps “made all the difference.”

“We played Yarmouth (in the last week of the regular season), and then Gray-New Gloucester (in the) first round, and now Camden Hills,” head coach Frank True said. “They all like to throw the ball a little bit, they all kind of get in those two-by-one formations. So we’ve been repping our pass coverage more extensively. The last three weeks, it’s over and over.”

OPPONENTS HAVE COMPLETED 43.2% of passes against MTA in the last three weeks, including two touchdowns.

Mt. Ararat will continue to get tested in the air when it plays Greely in the state final.

Both Greely quarterbacks, senior Andrew Padgett (seven touchdown passes) and sophomore Luke Piper (nine touchdown passes), are capable of hitting the deep ball. In a 30-26 win over the Eagles on Oct. 19, Piper threw two touchdowns and converted two late fourth-and-longs, which gave the Rangers the lead and pinned the Eagles deep in their own territory for the final drive of the game.

Farrell left the Week 7 game in the third quarter with an injury, but said ahead of last week’s semifinal that if another in-game injury were to occur, he would “play through it, now that it’s playoffs.”

FARRELL WAS NAMED the Campbell Conference eight-man Large School Player of the Year as well as first-team all-conference. Juniors Adrian Reyes, Martell Bowman and Aidan Ramsay also made the all-conference first-team. Doughty, seniors Kurt Coen and Phillip Edelblut were named to the all-conference second-team. True was named the eight-man Large School Coach of the Year.