Oak Hill fights for glory and beats Freeport in the D South quarterfinals

FREEPORT — A late landing led to Oak Hill/St. The House has a choice: fight for a draw or strive for victory. The Raiders were on their way to victory.

After Braden Dubuc connected with Isaac “Iggy” Graham on a long touchdown pass with 1 minute, 37 seconds remaining, Dubuc then found Cayden Delano for the two-point conversion to give the Raiders a 22-21 win over Freeport on Friday. Class D South match. football quarterfinals.

Fifth-seeded Oak Hill (6-3) will face No. 1 Wells (8-0) next weekend in the regional semifinals. Wells earned a 50–21 victory in the teams’ only regular-season meeting on October 4.



From Oak Hill/St. With Home’s season on the line, coach Chad Stowell said he decided to go for the two-point conversion instead of kicking the PAT because the Raiders’ defensive line was “hard to stop” for the Falcons for most of the game.

“I didn’t really want to give the Falcons the ball for a chance to tie the game,” Stowell said. “We had been riding Kayden for a long time and decided this would be another one, and he delivered.”

Freeport (5-4), the fourth seed, took a 21-14 lead when quarterback Teddy Peters found Ben Bolduc on a 15-yard touchdown pass with 3:20 left in the game.

Oak Hill responded quickly. Graham caught a 38-yard touchdown on what he called a “perfect pass” over the middle from Dubuque.

“I just knew the ball was coming to me,” Graham said. “I knew I had to make a big play, so I just went all out and it was just a perfect ball. Respect to the defender.”

Graham wasn’t done yet. On Freeport’s next drive, he intercepted a pass attempt at the Oak Hill 42-yard line to send the Raiders to the regional final.

“It was just amazing,” Graham said of the interception. “I was just shocked that I even got it. He tipped (and) I just dove right into it.”

Stowell said he “had a feeling” Graham was going to commit to the Raiders on Friday.

“Man, I mean, it was a big throw and a big catch — a tough catch — right down the middle of the field and then a touchdown, an interception to kind of cap it off,” Stowell said. “(Graham) played big, he’s a hell of an athlete. He gets overlooked sometimes on this team with Kayden and P.J. (Smith) and our defense and offensive line, but he’s one of the best receivers. He showed it today.”

Dubuque finished with 70 yards on 4-of-7 passing, while Graham had 61 yards rushing and 26 yards receiving.

Delano, who rushed for 145 yards and caught a pass, said the win felt amazing, especially considering the Raiders had been behind or tied the entire game before his two-point conversion following Graham’s touchdown.

“It’s an absolutely amazing feeling to not start and then to be back in deep fourth place and just allowing my line and my team to stay on their feet during such a big adversity, it’s just amazing,” said Delano, a senior. . “They kept blocking, they kept making huge holes for me to slip through.

“We just had to do our job,” Delano added, “a playoff game is always going to be different from the regular season. Everyone is trying their best, and the outcome of the game will be very different from what you think. We just had to come in and play our game, do our best, and this is the result.”

Peters rushed for 120 yards, including touchdown runs of 10 and 4 yards, for Freeport. He was also 3-of-9 passing.

“The young man is the hardest working player on this team,” Freeport coach Paul St. Pierre said. “We wouldn’t even be in this position if it weren’t for some of the individual, gutsy performances he showed all year and the work he put in in the offseason that fell through. He is a leader, he is our best player. I’m very proud of him.”

Bolduc finished with 75 yards rushing. St. Pierre said the senior “probably played his best game of the season” on Friday. After Peters left the game with a shoulder injury late in the fourth quarter, Bolduc took over at quarterback.

“Run away, very proud of this young man, and then he came in at quarterback at the end and almost got us into field goal range,” St. Pierre said. “I’m really proud of the effort he put in until the very end, definitely.”

Stowell said he knows Freeport will be a tough opponent.

“Freeport came out and they looked like they had a little more physicality, a little more drive and emotion than us,” he said. “We’ve had some solid games this year, we’ve had a few one-point losses, so it’s nice to get a one-point win.”

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