Bonny Eagle 61

Noble 0

Nate Doehler put on a football clinic with five touchdown passes and two rushing touchdowns to lead Bonny Eagle to a 61-0 dismantling of Noble in North Berwick Friday night. Max Alfiero caught three of those passes as the Scots improved to 4-1 on the year.

“We had a lot of incompletions last week, so it was good to see that the passes were on the money and the guys were catching them,” said Bonny Eagle head coach Kevin Cooper. “With what Noble was doing, they were trying to crowd the line like Westbrook did, we needed to throw and we’re not afraid to do it. When Nate’s throwing the ball like that and our guys are catching, it we’re going to be able to move the ball and score some touchdowns.”

That’s exactly what the Scots did early and often. Steve Martin ended Noble’s first possession of the game with an interception. That set up the Bonny Eagle offense on the Noble 42. After a handful of plays, the Scots were at the 17 and that’s when Doehler found Joe Davis in the end zone for the first Scots’ touchdown. The extra point made it 7-0.

Another Noble three-and-out gave the Scots the ball near midfield. Just three plays later, Doehler found Alfiero for the first time. Alfiero was open in the flat and Doehler put the ball right on him. Alfiero cut back and sprinted into the end zone for another score to give Bonny Eagle already a 13-0 lead.

The Knights fumbled on their next possession and the Scots took over just 25 yards from the end zone. Just a few plays later, Alfiero got loose in the back corner of the end zone and Doehler’s pass was on target. Another missed extra point kept the score at 19-0.

Noble turned the ball over for the third time on just their second play following the touchdown. Martin intercepted his second pass of the game and returned it 21 yards to the Noble 19. With just 35.1 seconds left in the first, Doehler found Martin for another touchdown. Ethan Thorne ran it in for the two-point conversion and Bonny Eagle’s lead was 27-0.

“Steve (Martin) is playing some really good inside linebacker right now,” Cooper said. “This is the first year he’s played inside; he was outside last year and he just keeps getting better. It’s nice to see as a coach that steep learning curve. He’s a smart kid, a very tough kid.”

Bonny Eagle’s next possession lasted all of 16 seconds. That’s how long it took Doehler to run 36 yards for his first rushing touchdown of the game. Doehler took the snap and began to run upfield when he paused to allow the defensive line to miss him. He headed down the right sideline before cutting back to the middle of the field and running in from there to make it 33-0.

Bonny Eagle’s next drive was eight plays and five minutes long. It ended when Doehler once again found Alfiero out of the slot for a 20-yard strike. That made the score 39-0.

On Noble’s next drive, they finally got a first down. With less than three minutes to go in the first half, Adam Lambert ran for eight yards on second and seven. But the drive ended when Martin pounced on a loose ball.

“Every game we do well on defense and this time we just didn’t give up a big play,” said Doehler. “That’s sometimes what hurts us. We stayed there mentally the whole game.”

The Bonny Eagle starters played one series in the second half and went three plays for a touchdown. Doehler ran for 29 yards on the first play from scrimmage and for 33 yards on the scoring play. That made it 45-0.

“(In) the first half, we didn’t do so well on our assignments blocking,” said Doehler. “But in the second half, we came out and we knew we needed to adjust some things and we did that. On the first series we scored, so we’re happy with that.”

Later in the third, Matt Rollins found Don Hildreth for a 19-yard touchdown pass to put the Scots up 53-0. Then with just 20.4 seconds left in the third Nate Martel ran 27 yards for the final touchdown of the game.

Big play of the game

With the Scots leading 13-0 late in the first quarter, Doehler connected with Alfiero for the second time to put Bonny Eagle up 19-0. Prior to that touchdown, the Knights were still in the game. At that point, the Scots began to pull away.

They said it

“We thought all along our defense was really good,” said Cooper. “The funny thing is our defense often doesn’t get noticed because everybody talks about our offense. But we work very hard on defense. They did what they had to do to keep Noble off the scoreboard.”

Unsung Hero

Last year Max Alfiero served as Doehler’s backup at quarterback and saw some playing time there. Friday night he was one of Doehler’s top targets and hauled in three touchdown passes.

“Max Alfiero played really well,” said Cooper. “He caught a few touchdown passes. I like what he did especially after the catch.”

Up Next

The Scots return home for one of the biggest games of the year Friday night when they host undefeated Deering. The Rams have scored points in bunches this season and have already beaten Gorham this year. Following the forfeit loss to Westbrook, the Scots will need to hand Deering their first loss to gain valuable Crabtree Points.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Cooper said of the Deering game. “Sometimes when you play teams that are struggling, it’s kind of hard to get excited and go about the daily grind of practice. I don’t think it will be like that next week. We’re looking forward to having Deering come to our place.”