ADAM SAMROV Sports Editor BENNINGTON - If not for the second quarter, the Mount Anthony Union High School Patriots played Division I rival Middlebury pretty even.

MAU may have found a new running back too.

Middlebury scored 28 points in the second quarter en route to a 41-6 win on Friday night at Spinelli Field.

"It was about execution and they executed better than us tonight," said MAU coach Bill Hay.

On the positive side, Zach Bahan - moving from offensive line to running back because of injury - rushed 21 times for 112 yards. Only one of his carries was for negative yards and most of the time, he was delivering the blow to the smaller Middlebury linebackers.

"I had to fill in for Jake [Normyle] and it's a little different,"

said the senior, who said he hadn't played running back since the eighth grade. "We didn't have much give up."

On the first drive for MAU, they drove 48 yards in 13 plays, but a Damon Young incompletion ended the drive. Middlebury came back with a 15-play drive covering 74 yards, with Sam Smith finishing with a 6-yard touchdown run.

Those two drives were the entire first quarter and Middlebury came out firing in the second. After a MAU punt, the Tigers got the ball at their own 47 and two plays later, Jakob Trautwein ran it in from 25 yards out for a 14-0 advantage.

A long special teams return by Austin Robinson set up the next score, a 4-yard run by Nicholas Feikl.

In the second half, MAU came up with their best drive of the year. Starting at the 4, the Patriots marched down the field on a 15-play drive, all runs. Conner Rawling scored the first TD in seven quarters for MAU, a three-yard run. Bahan ran the ball nine times on the drive.

"You have to hit [Bahan] low, because he can be a force," said Middlebury coach Dennis Smith.

"We got better this week," Hay said. "That's what we're trying to do. A drive like that can be a confidence builder."