PITTSFIELD- The Maine Central Institute (MCI) Huskies defeated Dexter 41-0 on Friday night to claim their third straight regional championship.
MCI (11-0) had a nine play drive to open the game. That was a rare drive that didn’t end up in any points for the Huskies. After a Dexter punt, MCI had a seven play drive that ended with a Willie Moss four yard touchdown run.
The play of the game came on the first play of the second quarter. Huskies quarterback Josh Buker found Adam Bertrand down the middle of the field. Bertrand did the rest, forcing miss tackles and ending up in the end zone for a 42 yard score.
“We had the wind to our backs,we decided to take a shot. It wasn’t just Adam,”MCI coach Tom Bertrand said. “We sent five guys vertical, picked the guy that was open, that happened to be Adam. He made a great play.”
Adam Bertrand added, “I don’t know how I did it. I just read it and got great blocks.”
Buker threw for 133 yards on 8-11 passing and rushed for 85 yards on 10 carries. Buker has been the catalyst on offense and special teams all season. The Huskies returned two punts for touchdowns, including one from Buker in a 36-2 regular win over Dexter. Buker returned eight punts for touchdowns this season. MCI got great field position on multiple occasions when the Tigers kicked the ball out of bounds in an effort to keep the ball away from Buker.
“We take special teams as an opportunity to get the ball into the end zone,”Buker said. “If they want to kick the ball out of bounds and give us great field position, we will take it.”
Coach Bertrand added, “you have a guy (Buker) that has returned eight punts for touchdowns. He changes things, we want to continue to improve on special teams.”
Eli Bussell had a one yard touchdown run while Buker had a five yard score as the Huskies took control with a 28-0 halftime lead. MCI had 215 total yards in the first half, while holding Dexter to 41 yards.
Bussell scored on a 13 yard run with 4:41 remaining in the third quarter to give MCI a 34-0 lead. Pedro Matos finished the scoring with 10:51 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Huskies will play the winner of Winthrop and Lisbon in the class D state title game Saturday, November 19th at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland. MCI lost in the state final to Oak Hill the last two seasons.
“They are all great, but this is the one that is ahead of us. You can’t get the old ones back,”Buker said. “This is it, my senior year.it is now or never.”
Dexter finished the season with a 8-3 record. It was the first regional final appearance for the Tigers since 1991.
Click here for all the football regional results.
