SACO — Despite a long and storied 100-plus year football tradition, Thornton Academy had still yet to achieve one thing entering Saturday ”“ win a regional championship on its home turf.

After a largely dominant performance against Bonny Eagle, the Golden Trojans can now check that off the list.

Behind an aerial attack led by quarterback Austin McCrum and tight end Kevin Barrett, and a defense that was for the most part able to bottle up Bonny Eagle’s playmakers, the top-seed Trojans beat the second-seeded Scots 30-14 in front of a crowd of 2,011 in the Western Class A regional championship game at a frigid Hill Stadium.

Thornton (9-1) will play for its second state championship in three years when it takes on Windham (9-1) ”“ which beat Cheverus 21-20 in overtime in Saturday’s Eastern A title game ”“ next Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.

“This means the world to me,” said McCrum, a junior and second-year starter. “I’ve never been a part of this. I was injured my freshman year and to be a part of this is the best thing that’s happened to me. That’s the biggest win I’ve ever had.”

McCrum had completed just 3 of his 14 passes for 27 yards in Thornton’s 28-12 victory over Bonny Eagle (6-4) during the regular season, a game played on a wet field on a Friday night in Standish.

On Saturday, in the sun, it was different as McCrum was 13 of 17 for 260 yards, including first-half touchdown passes of 29 and 42 yards to Barrett, as the Trojans took a 17-6 lead into halftime.

“I always struggle (throwing the ball) at their place but here I’m relaxed in the pocket and everything seems to happen a lot slower,” McCrum said. “We had Kevin in space, he had an inside backer on him a lot, and that made it a lot easier to get him open and they just couldn’t shut it down.”

Barrett wasn’t the only weapon McCrum was able to find for big gains through the air against a Scots defense that was all but daring the Trojans to throw the ball by heavily loading the box. Corey Hart hauled in three passes for 87 yards, while Ben Lambert had five catches for 51 yards.

“It was just what they were giving us,” Thornton coach Kevin Kezal said. “The first time we played them they played more coverage and we were able to run the ball a bit more. Today they were playing the run a bit more with more people in the box and that opened up throwing the ball.

“Our line did a great job up front blocking for Austin to throw the ball and Kevin, Corey and Ben all had great games.”

Thornton set the tone early, taking the opening kickoff and marching 61 yards for a score. After five rushing plays netted 32 yards to open the drive, McCrum found Barrett behind the defense on a seam route for the opening points. Cam Cadorette added the extra point, and it was 7-0 Thornton just 2:18 in.

“This week, we added a few routes and some plays to get me the ball down the middle of the field,” Barrett said. “The first game (against Bonny Eagle) I didn’t touch the ball, actually. The coaches did a great job of getting me the ball and it ended up helping us.”

Thornton then forced a Bonny Eagle three-and-out and looked to be heading in for another score on its next series when a Demel Ruff 22-yard scamper moved the Trojans to the Scots’ 22. But Ruff couldn’t handle a toss on the next play and the loose ball was recovered by the Scots’ Dylan Ricci to end the threat and help change the momentum.

After picking up just two first downs on their first three drives, Bonny Eagle was able to at last get the ball moving in the second quarter thanks to some trickery.

Starting at the 39 after forcing a Thornton punt, fullback Matt Smith took a toss, rolled out and flung a 37-yard completion to a leaping Ben Malloy. Quarterback Zach Dubiel hit Smith out of the backfield on the next play for a touchdown, but the extra point was missed as Thornton held on to a 7-6 lead.

It didn’t take long for the Trojans to again extend that advantage as they took just four plays to go 69 yards. McCrum hit Lambert for 22 yards on a curl route to pick up a key third-down conversion, and on the next play found an open Barrett with a beautifully lofted ball for 42 yards and a touchdown.

“With a quarterback like McCrum and guys like Hart, Barrett and Lambert as receivers, they’re going to make plays in the passing game,” Bonny Eagle coach Kevin Cooper said. “Our guys did a good job fighting, but we got caught in one bad coverage … that led to the second Barrett touchdown.”

Thornton used timeouts and forced the Scots to punt on its next possession to get the ball back at its own 36 with 31.2 seconds left in the half. Hart made a circus catch on first down, reaching around the back of Malloy to haul in a 24-yard catch to kick-start the drive.

After two incompletions, McCrum found Barrett for 24 more yards to move the ball to the 16 with five seconds on the clock. With the wind working to his advantage, Kezal then sent Cadorette out and the kicker split the uprights to give the Trojans an 11-point halftime edge.

“That was huge,” Kezal said. “Austin made great throws, we had the wind and the past few weeks Cam has been kicking the ball great. That’s big, going into halftime with a two-score lead as opposed to one score.”

“It was a great job by Thornton Academy to take advantage of the wind a little bit, complete some passes to get down there and then make a very good coaching decision to go for the field goal,” Cooper said. “That was a big play in the game, definitely.”

The Scots looked to have gotten right back into the game on their second drive of the third quarter when Dubiel broke free and ran 77 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown. But the play was called back for a holding call in the interior of the line, and Michael Laverriere picked off Dubiel two plays later to give the Trojans the ball at the Scots’ 19.

It took Thornton six plays to score, with Laverriere barreling over the left side of the line 4th-and-goal from the 1 to give Thornton a 24-6 lead with 6.9 seconds left in the third.

“We knew we couldn’t turn the ball over against Thornton Academy,” Cooper said. “They’ll make you pay.”

Bonny Eagle turned the ball over on downs its next drive and the Trojans proceeded to seal the game with an eight play, 72-yard drive capped by a Greg Ruff 21-yard TD run on his first carry of the game with seven minutes to play.

The Scots scored on their next drive thanks to a long kickoff return by Cam Theberge followed soon after by a Dubiel 1-yard TD sneak, with Smith running in the 2-point conversion to make it 30-14 with 4:12 left.

But the resulting onside kick went out of bounds, and Thornton, using a full house and running the same dive play multiple times with Laverriere and Greg Ruff, was able to chew up yardage and run out the rest of the clock.

“The game was going to be won in the trenches,” Barrett said. “When we came out in those last four minutes and were able to run the same play over and over and over again, it showed we were just dominating their defensive line.”

The Trojans outgained the Scots 430-243 in all. In addition to the passing yards, Thornton’s ground game stayed balanced as usual. Demel Ruff led it with 56 yards on 19 carries, while his brother Greg added 38 yards on six rushes and Laverriere 25 on six carries.

On the other side, Smith was largely contained as he gained 47 yards on 14 carries while Dubiel rushed for 53 yards and added 86 through the air for the Scots, who will now hold the title of defending Class A state champions for just one more week.

“They’re a very good team and they were the better team today and they deserve to go to the state championship game. We wish them the best,” Cooper said. “I’m proud of how hard our kids fought today. We were with them close for a while.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected].