WALES — You just can’t seem to separate these two. Not on this field.

A year ago, it took a last-second field goal for the Winthrop football team to prevail over Oak Hill in the Class D South semis. It was a similar story Saturday when a missed extra point proved the difference as the Ramblers won a 22-21 nail-biter at Stacen Doucette Memorial Field.

“We feel we got very lucky today,” said Winthrop head coach Joel Stoneton. “They’re a great team, and they have some great athletes and really executed well. It’s one of those games that could have gone either way, and fortunately for us, it went our way this time.”

Both teams mounted 72-yard touchdown drives in the game’s final minutes with the game tied at 15. Whereas Winthrop’s kick was good after a Braden Branagan touchdown run with 3:10 left, Oak Hill’s was not after Braden Dubuc found Kaiden Delano for a 21-yard score with 13 seconds left.

Dubuc completed 11 of 23 passes for 150 yards and three scores for Oak Hill, which got six caches for 113 yards and two touchdowns from P.J. Smith in the receiving game. Carter Rivers had 17 carries for 96 yards for Winthrop, which was outgained 233-201 in the win.

Winthrop/Monmouth linbeback Cody Cobb and other players reach for a ball fumbled by the Oak Hill offense during a football game Saturday in Wales. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

The game couldn’t have had a much sloppier start with neither team scoring in a first quarter filled with penalties and fumbles. Oak Hill (2-2) finally got on the board first with six minutes to play in the half as Dubuc found Smith for a 29-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-20.

“For a first-year starting quarterback, Braden played a pretty tough game against a pretty tough opponent,” said Oak Hill head coach Chad Stowell. “He spent all summer trying to compete for reps at the receiver position, and then, Kai (Taylor) leaves, and he takes over at quarterback. He’s continuing to get better.”

Two possessions later, Winthrop (4-0) cut Oak Hill’s lead to 7-6 as Cody Cobb ran for a 7-yard score on fourth-and-3. The Ramblers then got a stop to start the second half and went up 12-7 after Cobb capped off a 14-play, 86-yard drive with a 1-yard run with one second left in the third quarter.

Gabe Robinson then made it 15-7 Winthrop with a 31-yard field goal with 9:41 to play, but Oak Hill then got a 29-yard touchdown pass from Dubuc to Smith on the ensuing drive. Delano (13 carries, 70 yards) then plunged in for the 2-point conversion to tie the game with 7:22 to go.

“We played them in two one-score games last year, so we know, if we were going to be in this one, it was going to be difficult and might come down to the wire,” Stowell said. “I’m super proud of our guys for continuing to fight. For a team that has goals for the playoffs, this was a great game to have. It went right to the end.”

Winthrop answered with a 72-yard drive that resulted in Branagan’s push over the top with just over three minutes to go. Oak Hill then converted a fourth-and-4 with a 36-yard pass from Dubuc to Smith before Dubuc’s 21-yard wheel route to Delano, but the PAT sailed just wide before the Ramblers recovered an onside kick to escape.

Winthrop had a disaster of a first quarter offensively, converting just one first down and fumbling twice, both lost. Yet while Oak Hill had contained the Ramblers’ run game in the first half, the visitors were able to get the ground game going in the second with 81 of Rivers’ 97 yards coming after the break.

“We condition so well,” Rivers said. “Our coaches get us ready — we run hills, we run sprints — so in the second half, Oak Hill probably got a little tired. We’re so conditioned, and we didn’t get tired, so we were just able to keep pounding them and keep doing what we wanted to do.”

Still, what happened early in the game was still worrying to Stoneton. Winthrop had worked on cleaning up penalties and mistakes after committing many late in the team’s Week 3 win over Freeport, and while those miscues have yet to cost the Ramblers the win, he knows they can’t continue.

“You can’t turn the ball over or keep starting drives with first-and-20,” Stoneton said. “We’ve got to get better at getting into rhythm and get those things cleaned up. It’s too late in the season to be saying that, but that’s where we are.”