Morning Sentinel
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Boudreau scores twice as Lawrence rolls to win
BY TRAVIS LAZARCZYK
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 09/06/2008

FAIRFIELD -- The Lawrence High School offensive and defensive lines were as good as advertised in Friday night's season opener against Mt. Blue. But the Bulldogs' offensive backfield, hit hard by graduation, proved it has plenty of talent, too.

Lawrence scored on its first six possessions and held the Cougars to one first down in the first half, and the two-time defending Pine Tree Conference Class A champions rolled to a 41-0 win.

Lawrence dominated the first half, gaining 294 yards while holding Mt. Blue to 19. Junior fullback Anthony Boudreau ran for 109 of his game-high 137 yards in the first half and scored a pair of touchdowns.

"We've got big linemen up front, and the holes were the biggest tonight," said Boudreau, who scored on runs of 10 and 36 yards.

After last week's exhibition game at Waterville, Lawrence coach John Hersom decided to play a number of linemen one way. The move worked, with fresher players in the trenches on both sides of the ball. Lawrence finished the game with 482 total yards, while Mt. Blue gained just 77.

"Some of our guys, just by their performance (at Waterville), showed they're not quite ready to bang on the line of scrimmage both ways. So we got those guys split up a little bit, and they had a good week of preparation," Hersom said. "Some of those guys who don't normally start stepped in and did a good job. That was a good key for us tonight."

Boudreau scored on a 10-yard run to give Lawrence a 7-0 lead barely four minutes into the game. Lawrence added a pair of touchdowns on fourth-down conversions to push the lead to 21-0 by the end of the quarter.

Jesse Longstreet broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage to turn a fourth-and-inches play into a 53-yard touchdown run, and quarterback Ben Violette connected with Maxwell Haney for an 18-yard touchdown pass with 1 minute, 32 seconds left in the first quarter.

"Their line is experienced, big, tough. These guys the last three years have been better than all of us," Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin said.

"Coming down here and playing down here against these guys, there were some pretty wide eyes."

Violette ran for 37 yards and threw for 103 and two touchdowns. Haney had three catches for 67 yards.

Derek Rowe led Mt. Blue with 55 yards rushing.

Travis Lazarczyk -- 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

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