By Stephen Ham

Special to the Leader

Scarborough’s playoff hopes were dimmed under a relentless Marshwood ground attack in a Friday night 34-6 loss to the Hawks in South Berwick. The Red Storm entered the game with a record of 3-2, and were looking for a win to shore up their playoff chances. What they got was something else.

Marshwood used their single wing offense with devastating efficiency, using phenomenal blocking to blast holes in the Scarborough line. Although the Hawks have one of the top passers in southern Maine in Sean Gray, they elected to go to the ground all night, only attempting passes on a couple of downs. And why not stick to the ground? Running back Dana kneeland had a career day, carrying 38 times for 349 yards and scoring all five of Marshwood’s touchdowns.

So what happened? The obvious fact was that Marshwood executed it’s offense flawlessly, and that the Red Storm simply didn’t have an answer to stop them.

Marshwood made mistakes of their own, enabling Scarborough to remain close at the half, 12-6, but cleaned up their game in the second half, scoring 22 unanswered points.   

   The Red Storm came out on offense in the first quarter, surprisingly featuring former fullback Zack Bean at quarterback again. 

“We had issues throwing the football and managing the game,” Sterling said, addressing the move from Kyle Kelley to Bean. “We had to make a change. Zack also gave us the dimension of a quarterback who could run the ball a bit better.”

The lone Scarborough score came when Bean hit tailback Brendan Ham streaking down the left sideline with a beautifully thrown pass for a 69 yard touchdown. The Storm, behind all game, attempted to duplicate that play several times, but were unable to connect on the long ball again. Peter Tuma, Max Erwin, Joe Viola, and Tom Pogar all had key plays offensively, but again, the inability of Scarborough’s offense to finish drives killed them. 

“It was more a problem of holding onto the football,” Sterling said. “We fumbled the ball three times in this game. Each time we had an opportunity to get back in the game and we let it go. That was more of an issue than anything.”

The real story here was the defense’s inability to stop Marshwood and Kneeland.

“We played horrible on defense,” Sterling said after the game.  “We had some severe hardships that hit our team this week and it showed on the football field tonight. Some people weren’t ready to go, and we didn‘t execute our assignments on defense like we were supposed to.”

Sterling was referring to the dismissal of two key players from the team for unspecified rule violations, and another who was suspended for one game.

“We have some people who left the program this week and we needed some people to step up, but they had a harder time than we expected. We are looking for them to play better this week.”

Nick Neugebauer, Peter Tuma, Brian Woodbury, and Garrett Alofs all had important tackles to stop Marshwood drives.

Things don’t get easier for Scarborough, with a powerful Massabesic team coming to Scarborough next week. Asked what is needed for a win, Sterling said, “It’s senior week. They have to feel like this is their last game at home and really put the effort in.”

Team parents and supporters were at a loss trying to understand why team members would let their teammates down in the midst of a winning season. 

“This is our first winning season in class A,“ One parent said after the game. “I know kids will be kids, but in breaking the rules, they’ve hurt not just themselves, but the entire program.“