The Oceanside High School football team may not have scored as much as senior quarterback Cohen Galley would have liked Saturday afternoon, but its combination of ball-control offense and defense produced a history-making performance.
Galley guided the undefeated Mariners to touchdowns on five of their first six possessions and junior Zeb Foster came up with three turnovers and a touchdown catch as the Rockland-based squad captured its first regional title in program history with a 34-22 victory over Midcoast rival Medomak Valley of Waldoboro in the Class C North championship game at Hampden Academy.
“We want to score 50 and hold teams to the least amount possible, said Galley, whose 10-0 Oceanside team earned a berth in next Saturday’s state final against the winner of the South title contest between No. 1 Leavitt of Turner Center and No. 2 Fryeburg Academy.
“We didn’t quite score 50 today, but we could have if we had capitalized on every drive.”
Galley accounted for 89 yards and two touchdowns on the ground and completed 10 of 13 passes for 209 yards and another score as top-ranked Oceanside spotted No. 2 Medomak Valley a 6-0 lead 4:18 into the contest but took the lead for good by the end of the opening period.
Foster, meanwhile, was a big-play machine, coming up with two pass interceptions and a fumble recovery on defense, four catches for 78 yards and a touchdown on offense and a 48-yard kickoff return that set up his team’s first touchdown of the game.
“Zeb’s a great player,” Galley said. “He makes big plays when we need them, and he’s got the best hands maybe in the state and that helps us a lot.”
Medomak Valley, which had graduated 17 seniors from its 2002 regional championship team, ended this season with a 7-3 record after suffering its second loss of the fall to Oceanside.
The Panthers took the game’s opening kickoff and drove 65 yards in eight plays to take an early lead when senior running back Aaron Reed used a key block from classmate Colby Buck as the catalyst for a 26-yard scoring run with 7:42 left in the first quarter.
But while Reed went on to rush for 188 yards and all three Medomak Valley touchdowns in the game, the Panthers managed just 11 yards through the air while Oceanside ground out 334 total yards with its own heavy emphasis on its running attack along with an efficient aerial complement.
“They came out with three high safeties so we decided we had the advantage in the box so we ran it and it worked,” Galley said.
Galley, who entered the game with more than 1,000 yards both passing and rushing, and his teammates looked to run early in the game, with 17 rushes and just two pass attempts before intermission.
But that helped Oceanside take a 14-6 lead at the break, an advantage it increased to 20 points at 34-14 before Reed scored his final touchdown from 32 yards out with 1:33 left in the game.
“A lot of guys made a lot of plays today,” Galley said. “We had to tackle a little better in the first half and then in the second half we got a couple of stops and that’s all we needed to get the cushion we needed to win this game.”
Foster’s long kickoff return led to a time-consuming 11-play, 33-yard possession that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Galley and a two-point conversion pass from Galley to twin brother Carter Galley with 1:21 left in the opening quarter.
Foster grabbed his first interception of a Chase Peaslee pass on the first play of the second quarter, and the ensuing 48-yard march ended with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Galley to Foster to make it 14-6 with 8:46 left in the half.
Medomak Valley responded with a promising drive from its 37 inside the Oceanside 20, with Reed carrying the ball on nine consecutive plays for 43 yards. But a fumble after the Panthers gained first-down yardage on a fourth-and-4 carry from the Mariners’ 19 was recovered by Foster as Oceanside was able to maintain its eight-point lead at intermission.
Oceanside needed just two plays to extend that edge after receiving the second-half kickoff. First came a Galley-to-Galley connection, with Cohen passing to Carter for 42 yards to the Medomak Valley 18.
Carter Galley covered the remaining distance to the end zone on a jet sweep, and Oceanside led 20-6 just 33 seconds into the third quarter.
Medomak Valley scored 94 seconds later with three Reed runs accounting for 59 yards, the final 48 through left tackle with 9:53 left in the third quarter. Reed added the two-point conversion run to make it 20-14.
But the Panthers simply couldn’t stop Oceanside’s offense. First Gavin Ripley capped off a 78-yard possession with a 4-yard touchdown run and Cohen Galley added the conversion run to make it 28-14 midway through the third period.
Then Carter Galley concluded a subsequent 74-yard drive with a 3-yard scoring run to create the 20-point cushion with 9.5 seconds left in the quarter.
“We played as a team,” Cohen Galley said. “Everyone was doing their part today. We were selfless, we have been both times we’ve played them and at the end of the day we came away with what we thought we could do all season and won the North and now we have one more to go.”
