LACONIA, N.H. — The Mascoma High football team felt slighted.

Ahead of the second-seeded Royals’ NHIAA Division IV state championship clash with top-seeded Raymond, a couple D-IV coaches were asked to forecast the results of Saturday’s title game. Both coaches projected the undefeated Rams to finish the season with a championship. One even went as far as to predict a 44-point rout.

Well, message received.

What unfolded Saturday afternoon at Bank of N.H. Stadium at Laconia High was nothing short of a demolition — by Mascoma. Senior quarterback Brody Goulette accounted for three first-half touchdowns, setting the tone for a wire-to-wire, 45-0 shellacking of Raymond to deliver the Royals’ first state title.

“When you see 56-12, it’s like, ‘Really? Who said that?’ ” said senior Ethan Lewis, who posted 66 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns. “That really lit a fire beneath us as a team. We’d end practice, everybody’s angry. … And I’m glad that we could stick it to them and prove them wrong.”

The prognostications made by the program’s outside detractors certainly added to Mascoma’s pregame anticipation. Avenging a season-opening 39-12 defeat to the Rams, which junior Paxten Roberts acknowledged was “a rough way to start” the 2024 campaign, was also top of mind.

Mascoma coach John Daley said his team essentially had two weeks to prepare for Raymond’s high-scoring offense, which entered Saturday averaging 43.75 points per game. The Royals’ semifinal opponent, Hillsboro-Deering, ran a similar style of offense to the Rams, affording Daley and his team an extra week of pass coverage preparation.

Mascoma’s defensive philosophy was simple: Bend, don’t break. Mixing up man and zone coverages, Daley wanted to devise a scheme to take Raymond’s “outstanding athletes” out of the equation.

It worked.

The Royals forced four turnovers, picking off Rams quarterback Ethan DeRoche twice, including a 34-yard pick-six in the fourth quarter courtesy of junior Myles Wetherbee. Raymond also came up empty on four red zone trips, as the Royals secured their only shutout of the season.

On the other side of the ball, there was little the Rams could do to stop Mascoma’s offense.

The Royals’ opening drive of the game lasted nearly 9 minutes, an 18-play, 65-yard march down the field capped by a 13-yard touchdown pass from Goulette to senior Gareth Brown in the back of the end zone. Brown followed up his touchdown reception by recovering a Raymond fumble on the ensuing kickoff, setting Mascoma up at the Rams’ 10-yard line. This time, the Royals needed only three plays to score, Goulette earning his first of two rushing touchdowns on the day.

Just like that, the Rams’ defense — which had surrendered just 39 total points to opponents all season — saw Mascoma take a commanding 16-0 lead before their offense had taken the field. An extended seven-minute drive in the second quarter saw Goulette scamper into the end zone on the quarterback keeper.

“We came out ready to just run it down their throat nonstop,” said Goulette, his team posting 171 yards on the ground in the win. “And then we’d sneak in some passes here and there. And it worked out amazingly.”

Said Roberts: “Our offense has been strong all season. We’re run-heavy, so we’re just driving it down the field — four yards, six yards, seven yards, big break — lulling (Raymond) to sleep, passing the football. Really, we’re just doing what we’ve worked since January to accomplish. We’ve been working on this for so long, so many of these kids all four years.”

The two teams played a scoreless third quarter before the Royals doubled up their lead in the final frame, boosted by two Lewis rushing touchdowns and Wetherbee’s interception return.

Daley believed his team was far better than the 3-4 overall finish it posted last season. Collectively, the group needed to mature, but there was no doubt that the Royals thought they could be playing on the final day of the season, he said.

Their success this fall was rooted in treating the sport like it’s a job, he added. That consistent intrasquad competition, one where the roster wasn’t locked in until the Thursday before games, saw Mascoma rattled off an eight-game win streak to close the season, outscoring opponents 346-76 in that span.

“This is a great group of kids,” said Daley, who was doused in Gatorade after helping deliver the program’s first state football championship in just its second appearance in the title game. “We have seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshmen, all making plays. They all buy into the program; they buy into the system.

“And it’s one thing to get them to buy into the system, but to have them execute it and (see) the results, it gives them something tangible. Like, ‘Yes, it works.’ ”

Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.