AUGUSTA — Stopping Luke Duncklee isn’t an easy task.

Cony’s quarterback can attack a defense either with his legs or his arm. Friday night, it was his arm that did the damage as he threw for 241 yards and three touchdowns to lead Cony to a 32-14 win over Oxford Hills in a Pine Tree Conference football game.

The Vikings (1-7) employed a two-man spy game on Duncklee by using their two inside linebackers to key on him. That strategy limited Duncklee, who eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in rushing Friday, to 78 yards on 20 carries as sophomore Jordan Croteau and junior Zach Lejonhud kept him in check for the most part.

With the running portion of Cony’s spread offense neutralized, Duncklee and the offense took to the air. All the senior field general did was connect with five different receivers and complete 13 of his 22 attempts.

“That was the difference between us,” Oxford Hills coach Nate Danforth said of Duncklee. “They spread us out a bit. If he can’t run it, he throws it.”

On Cony’s third play of its opening drive, Duncklee found wideout Colin McKee for a 36-yard catch-and-run down the right side to go up 7-0.

The Rams (4-4) scored again on their third possession of the game as Duncklee hit Chandler Shostak for 19 yards and connected with McKee for 21 to set up their second score of the game. This time it was Duncklee taking the ball up the middle for a 2-yard score.

Late in the second quarter, the Rams faced a fourth-and-8 from the Viking 31. Duncklee stepped back and tossed a scoring strike down the middle to Nick Lucas to give the home team a 20-0 halftime edge.

“They filled the (running) holes really well,” said Duncklee. “Their linebackers were coming up so we went to the passing game and that worked for us.”

The Vikings were dealt a blow to their offense early in the first quarter when starting quarterback Logan Sanborn injured his hand and was lost for the rest of the game. With their backup quarterback unavailable, they turned to senior Jon Flanders.

“He’s been our JV quarterback before, but he doesn’t even play offense,” said Danforth.

Flanders certainly didn’t look like he’d been away from the offense as he led the Vikings to a pair of long, clock-eating scoring drives in the second half. Both drives were culminated by 27-yard touchdown passes to split end Andy Ripley. Flanders finished with five completions on 14 attempts for 75 yards.

But the Vikings didn’t have the personnel to play catch up and Duncklee continued to find open receivers.

The Rams would score two more touchdowns in the second half on a 1-yard run by Duncklee and a 21-yard pass from Duncklee to Chandler Shostak.

“They’re scrappy,” said Cony coach Rob Vachon. “We thought we were going to have more with the running game when they came out in their three-man front to start the game, but we took what they gave us.”

[email protected]