SACO – An early lead had been cut in half and early momentum was starting to slip away, but the Thornton Academy football team still appeared to be in good shape to go into the halftime break Saturday with a seven-point against New Hampshire powerhouse Bedford.

And then a poorly-timed breakdown caused the scales of the game to tip for good.

Bedford scored a touchdown on the final play of the first half, then rode a dominant second half to a 35-21 victory in a matchup of reigning state champions. The Bulldogs (2-0) are two-time defending Division I champions in New Hampshire, and Thornton (1-1) won Maine’s Class A title last year.

“They played harder. … They made some adjustments at halftime, we tried to make some adjustments at halftime,” Thornton Coach Kevin Kezal said. “It’s hard. You can’t get real big plays against them because they’re so athletic. … The minute you get behind the stakes, it’s really hard to generate offense against them.”

It was the third matchup in as many years between the two programs, and Bedford has won all three. This one required some fortitude, however, as Thornton, aided by Bulldogs mistakes, held a 14-0 lead midway through the second quarter and a 21-20 advantage in the third.

“Starting down 14-0 is never easy, so we just told the guys that we needed to bounce back and put that in the past,” said Bedford quarterback Jack Maye, who was 15 of 18 passing for 234 yards and two touchdowns while running for a third score. “And getting that ball back with 30 seconds to go obviously helped us to score in that last-second drive. … It was a great momentum shift.”

The game started in ideal fashion for the Trojans, who came up with some opportunistic plays. Stevo Jones had an interception and Dominic Hussey recovered a fumble to end promising Bedford drives, and a 13-yard screen pass from Wyatt Benoit to Jackson Paradis and 88-yard run from Mauricio Sunderland (13 carries, 162 yards) propelled Thornton to a 14-0 lead.

After a 16-yard run from Helton cut the lead in half, Thornton was forced to punt with 26 seconds remaining. Bedford had no timeouts but put together a perfect drive, as Maye connected with Noah Cassamassino for 18 yards and Bennett Matthews (seven catches, 76 yards) for seven before hitting Peter Suozzo (four catches, 106 yards), who got behind the defense, for a 28-yard touchdown as time expired.

“Huge. Momentum in these games is everything,” Bedford Coach Zach Matthews said. “The fact that they could have gone in, they should have gone in to halftime up 14-7, and now it’s a tie game, I think is absolutely deflating for them. … It got our kids thinking ‘All right, this is our game now to win.’ ”

It wasn’t Thornton’s last time with the lead. After Maye scored on a 15-yard keeper to open the second half, Bedford missed the extra point. Jones then returned the ensuing kick 81 yards for a touchdown and a 21-20 lead.

But the Bulldogs had found their rhythm. Maye completed 11 passes in a row, and his 56-yard pass to Suozzo put Bedford back in front, 28-21.

Helton (18 carries, 180 yards) used his bruising style to batter the Trojans on the ground. His 6-yard score made it 35-21 with 3:23 left in the third quarter.

“Our mentality is, no matter the score, we can win the game,” Helton said. “We’re a third-quarter team. … We came out at half and were like ‘We’ve got to punch these kids in the mouth right from here.’”

Connor Ayoob ran 15 times for 56 yards for Thornton, which was facing perhaps its toughest test on the schedule.

“We kind of broke down right before the half,” Kezal said. “But I liked the way our kids responded. We went out, they scored again, and we returned a kick. Our kids battled. It’s a great game for us. Bedford is the best in New Hampshire, so it’s a great opportunity for our kids to test themselves against a really good, quality opponent.”

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