In win over Dartmouth, Apponequet's Gagnier a game-changer with his legs ... and arm

LAKEVILLE — Jackson Gagnier has the power to run you over.

He’s got the speed to run by you, too.

As it turns out, he’s also got a pretty decent arm.

A touchdown pass by the senior running back turned the tide for Apponequet on Friday night as the Lakers went on to beat Dartmouth 18-10 in non-league football action at Griffin Field for Apponequet’s third straight win.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Lakers pulled a trick play out of their pocket when senior quarterback Harrison Lemieux handed the ball off to Gagnier, who then completed the throwback to a wide-open Lemieux, who scampered down the left sideline 34 yards for the score.

“It was awesome,” said Apponequet head coach Zane Fyfe. “We saw how hard they were flowing and they weren’t respecting the back side so we said, ‘Hey, if they’re going to keep coming over and attacking, we’ll do our little throwback pass and it ended up working out.

“We just needed a play to get things going and hopefully blow things up a little bit and that’s exactly what it did.”

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The Lakers had worked on the play in practice this week.

“I have never thrown a touchdown pass,” Gagnier said. “I barely saw him because he’s so short. I knew where he was going to be because we practiced this yesterday and I just threw it and he caught it and he was gone.”

Lemieux added, “I told him to throw it out there and we’re going to get it. It was huge. Their corner kept flying upfield and we were like, ‘Let’s just do it.’ We’ve been practicing it all week. It’s time to try it out. Scoring that six points there was huge. That changed the game.”

Like they have done all season, Gagnier and Lemieux impacted the game with their playmaking abilities.

The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Gagnier broke free for a 40-yard touchdown run to put Apponequet ahead by two scores in the third quarter.

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“I ran through the hole and made a cut and nobody was there,” recalled Gagnier of the run. “I think they were over-pursuing because we kept running down. The boys up front are blocking phenomenally. I did not expect this from them. They’re making serious holes up front.

“The line is really the backbone of this team. We can’t run the ball without the line. We can’t move the ball. We’re a run heavy team and those guys are really stepping up.”

Gagnier finished the game with 22 carries for 150 yards.

“Gagnier is an excellent back,” Dartmouth head coach Rick White said. “He’s a real zone runner and they run some zone with him and he just finds the holes. It’s not like he’s just running to one spot. You’ve got to prepare for him to bounce outside. He’s got good speed.”

Fyfe said that Gagnier has made vast improvement from a year ago when rushed for seven touchdowns and 818 yards on 149 carries (5.5 average per carry), earning Standard-Times Super Team honors.

“He’s really come a long way,” Fyfe said. “Last year he liked to dance a lot. This year he’s really hitting the hole and putting down the hammer. He’s now turned into the back where if you try to tackle him, he’s going to truck you and if you try to dance around him, he’s going to fly by you. He’s got both things going for him which is fantastic.”

Gagnier credits Lemieux with getting him to play the sport.

“I started playing because of him,” Gagnier said. “We grew up together and we’ve been neighbors our entire lives. He’s been my quarterback since I was 10 years old.”

Lemieux remembers the two of them coming to Apponequet games when they were younger.

“Growing up we were over there throwing the football around and watching all the games,” he said. “To be on the field ourselves, it’s different. It’s great.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

Neither team did much of anything on offense in the first quarter as Apponequet had 39 yards of offense and Dartmouth 10 through the first 12 minutes.

In a scoreless game, Dartmouth marched down to the Apponequet 1 on a 10-play, 51-yard drive, but fumbled the ball in the end zone and the Lakers' Gagnier  recovered.

“I’d like to see it again on film,” White said. “I don’t think it was a fumble, but we’ve got to live with it. That certainly hurt us. It would have been nice to get going with that, but they’re a good football team. We knew that coming in.”

Fyfe added, “The kid reached out and someone punched it out. We just recovered it. That was huge for us.”

Apponequet responded on its next possession as the Lakers caught Dartmouth by surprise with Gagnier’s 34-yard scoring strike to Lemieux for a 6-0 advantage.

“They hurt us with the throwback to the quarterback,” White said. “He’s a good athlete and he throws it back to the quarterback, who is a good athlete. They caught us on that one. That was a good play by them.”

Dartmouth cut Apponequet’s lead in half thanks to a 22-yard field goal by junior Louie Freitas with 40 seconds left in the first half.

Apponequet scored on its opening drive of the third quarter when Gagnier broke a few tackles on his way 40 yards to paydirt and a 12-3 advantage.

The Lakers got in the end zone on their next possession as they marched 76 yards on 12 plays and scored on a three-year QB keeper by Lemieux.

“Harry is very smart,” Fyfe said. “I can tell him, 'If you see this, do this,' and he can make calls on the fly on the field and I don’t have to worry about it. It’s nice because it gives us a dynamic offense where we can either go one way or another depending upon what they show us.”

Dartmouth closed the gap to 18-10 on a 60-yard scoring strike from junior Nikko Morris to Freitas and a Freitas PAT with 6:44 to play.

Dartmouth then recovered a fumble at midfield on the ensuing kickoff return, but wasn’t able to pick up a first down.

“The fumble at the end on the kick return put a little scare in us, but the defense stepped up big and forced the punt and we were able to run the clock out,” Fyfe said. “That was great. The kids played awesome. They executed the way we practiced. We gave up the one big pass at the end, but even before that the defense was phenomenal. We were stopping them from running the ball.”

White added, “We had a chance and we didn’t do anything with it. It was disappointing not to do something after the turnover. I just told the kids we gave ourselves a chance in the second half and made it a one-score game and that’s all you can hope for. They were better today. Hats off to them.”

WHAT IT MEANS: The win was the third straight for Apponequet (3-1), which hosts Somerset Berkley on Friday. Dartmouth, which falls to 2-2, hosts Brockton on Friday.

SOUTHCOASTVARSITY PLAYER OF THE GAME: Gagnier had a hand in two of Apponequet’s three touchdowns. He threw the first touchdown pass of his career and finished with 150 rushing yards.

FYFE: “It’s great. The kids are excited. We’re excited. They’re really buying in. We’re happy with what they’re doing and we’re really proud of them.”

NOTES: Apponequet’s South Coast Conference champion boys tennis team was honored at halftime. … Apponequet girls basketball head coach Trevor Gagnier was in attendance, watching his nephew, Jackson, play.

APPONEQUET 18, DARTMOUTH 10

DARTMOUTH;0;3;0;7 — 10

APPONEQUET;0;6;6;6 — 18

Scoring

First Quarter

None

Second Quarter

A: Harrison Lemieux 34 pass from Jackson Gagnier (pass failed), 2:49

D: Louie Freitas 22 field goal, :40.6

Third Quarter

A: Jackson Gagnier 40 run (pass failed), 5:55

Fourth Quarter

A: Harrison Lemieux 3 run (run failed), 8:13

D: Louie Freitas 60 pass from Nikko Morris (Louie Freitas kick), 6:44

Individual Statistics

Rushing — D: Ray Gramlich 9-11, Chace Feno 1-12, Markus Andrews 1-2, Nikko Morris 2-8, Louie Freitas 2-(-4); A: Jackson Gagnier 22-150-1, Harrison Lemieux 10-36-1, Quinn Bennett 5-28, Jacob Flounders 4-14, Caiden Cyr 1-(-11), Brody Joly 4-42.

Passing — D: Nikko Morris 10-13-147-1-0; A: Harrison Lemieux 3-5-33-0-0, Jackson Gagnier 2-2-42-1-0.

Receiving — D: Ray Gramlich 1-(-4), Chace Feno 4-26, Louie Freitas 3-84-1, Dylan Gomes 2-31; A: Harrison Lemieux 2-42-1, Jackson Gagnier 1-10, Ethan Brown 2-23.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Gagnier, Lemiuex help Apponequet beat Dartmouth in non-league football