ORONO — Up a point, with the ball at the Cony 3-yard line and only five minutes to play, it looked like Kennebunk was about to deliver a knockout blow in Friday night’s Class B state championship game at Morse Field.

But like it did all night, when the Rams needed that one thing to go right to pull away, it all went went wrong.

After breaking off a 60-yard run the play before, Rams quarterback Nick Emmons fumbled on the next play and Cony recovered at its own 1-yard line.

Still down 23-22 and needing to go 99 yards in 4:45, Cony did just that behind standout quarterback Ben Lucas, who with the help of a questionable call, drove his team the length of the field. Lucas hit receiver Jonathan Saban with a perfectly lofted 25-yard touchdown pass with a minute to play to lift Cony to its first ever state championship game win, 30-23 in a back-and-forth instant classic.

Kennebunk, which turned the ball over five times but still led 6-0 at half and 16-0 late in the fourth quarter, finished its season at 11-1.

“It was a heck of a game. That was high school football at its purest,” Kennebunk coach Joe Rafferty said. “We left some points on the board and they played outstanding. It was a great game.”

After completing just 6 of his 16 passes for 40 yards in the first half, Lucas was the prolific passer he’s been all year in the second, going 17-31 for 310 yards and three touchdown passes as Cony (9-2) scored all 30 of its points points in the final 14:21.

Lucas ends his high school career with 89 TD passes, a state record.

“Ben Lucas just took over this football game,” Cony coach Robby Vachon said. “He’s the best quarterback in the history of Maine high school football and he showed it tonight.”

With the game expected to be a shootout, it turned out to be a defensive battle early as neither team could get much going, until Kennebunk got on the board with 9:20 left in the second quarter when Emmons hit Austin Sandler on a 17-yard TD pass in the corner of the end zone.

It would stay 6-0, however, as a personal foul backed kicker Jake Lary up 15 yards and his extra-point went just wide of Morse Field’s posts, which are four yards narrower than standard high school goal posts.

Kennebunk had one last chance to add to the lead late in the second quarter, but after its drive stalled at the 11, Lary sent his kick wide left and it remained a one-score game at the half, as Cony’s high-octane offense managed just 88 yards of offense in the opening 24 minutes.

“I just knew at half I needed to get my act together,” Lucas said. “It was probably the worst I’ve played in my career, but I just had faith in my teammates and I knew we’d come through.

“Their defensive backs were pretty good and they were playing pretty tight coverage, but those are usually throws that I can make and I was just skipping them short.”

After forcing Cony into another three and out to start the second half, Kennebunk again drove into the red zone before seeing a drive stall. This time Lary put his 31-yard kick through the uprights, though, and it was 9-0.

It was 16-0 in the blink of an eye soon after, when after a short catch, Cony’s Tyler Carrier had the ball ripped out of his hands on an outstanding play by linebacker Nicco DeLorenzo, who ran 53 yards the other way to put his team up 16-0 with 4:39 left in the third.

It went from bad for worse for Cony when Lucas was sacked by David Jackson on the first play of the ensuing drive. But facing a third-and-22, the quarterback hit Carrier for a 19-yard completion and then Bennett for a 22-yarder.

Two plays later, he found Saban with a perfectly placed pass in the end zone from 16 yards out, and Lucas ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 16-8 with 2:14 left in the third.

Just 62 seconds later, it was 16-14 as Emmons was picked off by linebacker Austin Davis. On the next play, Lucas hit Bennett on a wheel route, and it was a two-point game.

After a Kennebunk three and out, Cony took the lead for the first time on an eight-play, 82 yard drive that included a fourth-and-16 conversion and ended on a 3-yard run by Carrier, who also caught the 2-pointer.

“We just knew if we could get a little bit of breathing room our offense was clicking for the most part,” Lucas said. “I knew once everything got clicking we’d be pretty tough to stop.”

But Kennebunk, with its offense spluttering, responded as Emmons faked a handoff to DeLorenzo left, went right and found a hole to race 41 yards for a score, with Lary’s extra point giving Kennebunk a 23-22 lead.

Kennebunk got a much-needed stop on its next drive, and looked to be going in for a touchdown when Emmons ran the same fake he had on his score and went 60 yards, with Bennett making a touchdown saving tackle at the three.

On the next play, Emmons looked ready to go in for another score, but the ball popped out at the 1-yard line and was recovered by Elijiah Tobey.

“I thought he was going to walk in and I saw the ball pop loose,” Vachon said. “Someone’s shining down on this, that’s for sure.”

Still, with 99 yards to go and 4:45 on the clock, Cony had plenty to do. After two first downs, Kennebunk looked to have a game-clinching turnover when Ben Bath read a screen pass and looked to have an interception, but was ruled to have lost it when he hit the ground.

“I thought we had a turnover there,” Rafferty said.

From there, Cony worked its way down the field, and after three-straight run plays to run the clock down, Lucas lofted a beautifully placed pass into the arms of Saban running a corner route.

“Kid played him tough, he made a great catch,” Rafferty said. “They made some big plays, I thoughy both teams did.”

Saban also caught the 2-point conversion to make it 30-23, and a last-gasp Kennebunk come back was not to be when Reid Shostak intercepted Emmons with 15 seconds left, as the Rams came up just short of a perfect season and a second Gold Ball in school history.

“These kids, I love them,” Rafferty said. “They played as hard as they could play, and they always did. They believed, and we believed in them.”

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