BALL UP FOR GRABS — Fryeburg Academy defensive back Oscar Saunders (#12) found himself in the middle of Yarmouth's Jack Snyder (left) and Noah Colby-George trying to catch the ball Saturday. Snyder came up with the ball, and the Clippers rolled against the Raiders. (Rivet Photo)
YARMOUTH 48
RAIDERS 12
First Downs: FA 7, YAR 9
Penalties: FA 4-30, YAR 4-55
Turnovers: FA 1, YAR 2
Rushing: FA 29-30, YAR 38-368
FA rushing: Ryan Gullikson 20-21, Jared Chisari 9-9
YAR rushing: Henry Venden 7-33, Lucas Uhl 9-30, Harry Steinharter 1-4, Jack Snyder 10-59, Cody Cook 6-174, Remi Leblanc 5-68
Passing: FA 3-19-115, YAR 4-9-75
Total offense: FA 145, YAR 443
FA defense (solo, assist, total tackles): Tucker Buzzell 1-0-1, Kevin Ventura 0-1-1, Alex Ehrenssberger 1-4-5, Matt Boucher 4-2-6, Gage Fowler 2-3-5, Baha Demir 1-2-3, Ryan Gullikson 0-1-1, Scott Parker 1-1-2, Jared Chisari 1-0-1, Isaac Wakefield 1-1-2, Cody Gullikson 1-1-2, Nick L’Heureux-Carland 0-2-2, Cobey Johnson 1-0-1, Caleb Bowles 1-0-1, Oscar Saunders 2-1-3
Up next: The Raiders (1-3) travel to Freeport Saturday for a 1:30 game against the Falcons (0-4). Freeport lost last week to Cape Elizabeth 56-12.

By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

FRYEBURG — Watching game film, Coach David Turner knew Yarmouth had outstanding speed in the backfield.

The Clippers are also very quick and physical along the front line.

Yarmouth “stuffed” the Raiders’ offense Saturday allowing just 30 yards rushing and three completions through the air to thump Fryeburg Academy 48-12.

FA was unable to stop the Clippers on either side of the ball. Cody Cook rushed for 174 yards and scored on TD runs of 29, 93 and 54 yards as Yarmouth averaged 9.7 yards per carry.

Defensively, the Clippers had FA quarterback Ryan Gullikson running for his life most of the afternoon. The talented senior QB had nine plays resulting in negative yardage (minus 72 on the day). He didn’t enjoy much success through the air either, completing just 2-of-13 passes in the first half for 43 yards. FA receivers struggled, as well, dropping four well-thrown balls.

For the day, Fryeburg managed just 145 yards of offense compared to the Clippers’ 443.

“I think it was more we had problems with their speed. They didn’t do anything that we weren’t ready for, but watching it on film and having a scout team show something in practice is a little different than what we saw in person here today. They are very fast. They are tough and quick. And, they are physical. When you have that combination, it is tough to replicate that in practice. More than anything, we just got beat off the ball. It was a matter of speed beating us,” Raider Coach David Turner said. “They are very good. I wish I could say we played poorly. We certainly didn’t play great, but they just beat us up.”

Coming off an upset win at Wells a week ago, the Raiders had high hopes to notch another quality win against Yarmouth, but proved no match for the Clippers.

“Overall, they were the quickest team up front that we’ve seen so far,” Coach Turner said. “That front seven is tough. They do some nice things.”

In their first three series, FA managed just one first down — a 12-yard Gullikson scramble. Meanwhile, Yarmouth scored twice in the first quarter. Jack Snyder scored from seven yards out as the Clips took advantage of a very short punt (20 yards), starting the drive just outside the FA red zone. Cook slipped two tackle attempts and broke free for a 29-yard TD run. Andrew Beatty booted two extra-points for a 14-0 lead.

Cook left FA coaches shaking their heads when he shook a tackle in the backfield by Cody Gullikson, maintained his balance and then bounced off a hit by linebacker Matt Boucher and rumbled 93 yards for a TD with 11:12 left in the half.

FA finally came up with a defensive stop as Baha Demir and Jared Chisari dumped Cook for a four-yard loss, forcing the Clippers into a field goal try at the FA-20. Beatty, who has one of the strongest legs in the conference, sailed the 37-yard try wide to the right.

Gullikson scrambled for a 20-yard gain, but the FA drive stalled as Chisari was stuffed for no gain on a pitch play by Henry Venden and Noah Colby-George dumped Gullikson for just a yard.

Yarmouth pushed the lead to 28-0 as quarterback John Thoma connected for gains of 21 to Colby-George and 20 to Snyder. Remi Leblanc gained 12 yards as Oscar Saunders made a saving tackle. But, the Clips punched it in as Snyder scored from two yards out with 2:05 left.

Gullikson found Scott Parker alone along the sideline for a 34-yard gain, but Yarmouth’s defense stiffened to keep FA scoreless.

The Clippers put the game away by scoring twice in the third quarter. A failed fake punt (incomplete pass from punter Gullikson to Chisari) put the Clips in business at the FA-11. Thoma found Leblanc for an 11-yard scoring pass. Later, Cook scored on a 54-yard romp after a FA fumble. Yarmouth’s only blemish was a Thoma interception by FA defensive back Oscar Saunders.

Down 41-0, the Raiders continued to fight. Gullikson found his brother, Cody, behind the Yarmouth defense and connected for a 72-yard TD strike. The PAT pass fell incomplete.

After a Yarmouth fumble recovered by Saunders at the FA-22, the Raiders tacked on another score as Ryan Gullikson scrambled for 12 yards. He also had a 30-yard run.

Yarmouth closed out the scoring on the game’s final drive — four plays, 57 yards, Leblanc from 39 yards out with 10.6 seconds left.

“As the game wore on, speed becomes an even bigger factor. Suddenly, that three-yard gain in the first quarter turns into a 12-yard gain. Then, if you are a step behind, they’re gone. You can’t give them any space. That’s what we did,” Coach Turner said of Yarmouth’s big plays. “If you are going to beat a team like Yarmouth, you have to make every play, play sound and you have to move the ball. We didn’t do any of those things. They stuffed us. I didn’t have any answers. I tried to get into a play-calling rhythm, but couldn’t because of a penalty or a sack.”

While the final score was disappointing, Coach Turner was more interested to see how his players responded to adversity.

“At half, we try to tell a young team like ours that this isn’t about a half of football, it is about an eight-game season. The second half is how are we going to set things up for the rest of the season. The score is one thing, which most people look at, but we want to get guys to compete and play hard. You can get better if you are competing. We need to get better over these next four games,” he said. “When we watch the film, we’ll probably find a few good things, which we didn’t realize happened. As we’ve said all year, we can’t get caught up good or bad on one game. It’s an eight-game season. Hopefully, we can get better.”

He added, “We had a number of drops, but when someone has been physical with you, you then try to be more physical and it can take away your focus. Again, against good teams, you need to stay focused and make plays. You can’t afford drops.”

Saturday just wasn’t the Raiders’ day.

“If you look at the entire day, anything that could go wrong went wrong. The camera fell out of the tower, and we couldn’t make plays on the field,” Coach Turner said. “The one thing that went right was that it was a beautiful day.”

Now, it is on to Freeport. “We’ve never played at Freeport. We need to be ready to roll. We have to come ready to play, no matter who it is over the next four games. Anything can happen,” Coach Turner added.