BATH — With three consecutive penalties on the opening drive, Friday’s season opener against Morse was looking like it might be a long night for the Poland football team.
Whatever was to blame, perhaps nerves or a brand new set of plays and formations, it was no longer an issue by the second quarter.
Knights quarterback Damon Martin found three different receivers for touchdowns and added another score on the ground to lead Poland to a 35-0 road victory over Morse. The senior finished the evening with 6 of 13 passing for 53 yards and added 102 yards rushing on 14 attempts.
“Coming into this game, we all knew we weren’t the same team as last year,” Martin said. “But we wanted to show everybody else that we’re not the same team as last year, and that sends a message right there.”
Last year, the Knights went 1-7 and allowed 33 points per game against Class D South competition. Friday’s shutout is Poland’s first under second-year coach Seth Johnson.
For many Shipbuilders, it was the first time they had played a live game of 11-man football. Morse, which played in the 8-man Large division from 2021-24, was schedule to scrimmage Lisbon last week, but that was canceled due to field conditions.
Morse’s Caden Wells opened the game with a 60-yard kickoff return to give the home crowd a boost of energy, but Poland’s Landon Cooper snatched any momentum away on the first play from scrimmage by intercepting a Dylan Root pass off the hands of Junah Hays.
Root (3 for 9, 27 yards; 10 rushes, 21 yards) and Hays (eight rushes, 16 yards) traded positive runs to get Morse’s next drive to the Poland 19-yard line, but the Knights’ defensive front refused to budge and forced a turnover on downs.
The squads traded three-and-outs to finish the first quarter, and Morse downed a 68-yard punt from Root, pinning Poland at its own 5-yard line to start the second quarter.
The Knights, though, successfully used the triple option and a mix of ball carriers to orchestrate a six-minute, 12-play, 95-yard drive to take a 7-0 lead. Martin capped the series with a pair of impressive scrambles and a well-placed 8-yard jump ball to Sawyer Ramsdell in the end zone.
“I think nerves really got to us in the first quarter, for sure, but once we got over those nerves, it was done,” Martin said.
Morse was 5 yards away from scoring with 52.1 seconds left in the first half, but a pair of false starts, a sack and pass breakup in the end zone left the Shipbuilders empty handed.
“We need to have better poise,” Morse coach Jason Darling said. “You know, we were down inside the red zone twice and kind of shot ourselves in the foot with a couple of self-imposed mistakes, so we got to clean that up. We’re still young, and things like that are going to happen.”
On Poland’s first drive after the halftime break, Martin found Lucas Verrill for a short pass before the junior wideout ran 26 yards and dragged a Shipbuilder into the end zone. The Knights were gifted a short field on the next drive, and Martin scored Poland’s next touchdown with a 6-yard scamper that gave the visitors a 20-0 with 6:10 left in the third.
Morse was held without a first down in the second half, as high snaps over Root’s head derailed four drives and a fumble stopped the last.
Poland’s Miguel Cyr picked up one of those high snaps and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown. The ensuing 2-point conversion was successful for a 28-0 lead with 4:44 left in the third quarter.
The Knights’ starters made the most of their final drive, as Martin scanned the field and found his third end zone target of the day, Jameson Plummer, on a 6-yard dart with 11:41 remaining.
“Damon is able to pick athletes that he can make a play with, and that allows him to just do so many creative things behind an offensive line that is just shutting down the pass rush,” Johnson said. “We struggled with it early. (Darling) had a good blitz plan coming in, and then once we identified the blitz, we showed (our team) at halftime, then (Morse’s defense) couldn’t do anything. Then we just kept rolling them.”
