WALTHAM – The Vineyard found there was only one thing that could stop their power offense: turnovers. Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School turned the ball over on its first three possessions and a sharp Amesbury team turned those mistakes into 21 unanswered points and never looked back in a 40-19 victory over the Vineyarders in the Eastern Massachusetts Division 3A Super Bowl at Bentley University.

“I think we’ve had two fumbles all season,” said MV coach Donald Herman. "To turn the ball over our first three possessions today. ... When it rains, it pours - it was a thunderstorm today.”

Actually, it was a clear, calm, beautiful day for football. But it was only the Amesbury side that got to enjoy it, with the Cape Ann Small champion Indians taking home a Super Bowl trophy in their first Bowl appearance to cap a 12-1 season. MV, which won the Mayflower Large in its final season in the league, finishes 11-2 overall and falls to 5-3 in eight Super Bowl appearances.

“I think we were overlooked a little bit and we came and showed what we could do,” Indians coach Thomas Connors said. “We were very opportunistic all year. Whenever we got a big turnover, we turned it into points.”

Herman said nothing he saw gave an indication his team would play the way it did yesterday. MV senior quarterback Mike McCarthy suffered through what must have been the worst day of his career. He lost a fumble on the first offensive play of the game. He threw an interception to finish off MV’s second drive. And he lost another fumble to end MV’s third possession of the quarter.

The defense couldn’t bail him out. Amesbury was an offensive force all day, led by quarterback Jared Flannigan. The swift 5-6, 155-pound senior ran for 149 yards on 11 carries, threw for two scores and ran for two more. Speedy running back Kevin Johnston gained 70 yards on 12 carries and two TDs for the Indians.

“You turn the ball over, you have to stop them,” Herman said. “You can’t just give them six points. We didn’t stop them. It was our worst game of the season. They did what they wanted to do. We didn’t tackle, even when we were in position we didn’t do a good job of tackling.”

Flannigan found fullback Jesse Burrell for a 15-yard scoring pass after McCarthy’s first fumble. After a leaping interception by linebacker Stephen Serwon set the Indians up at the MV 40, Johnston swept left, broke a tackle and rambled in from 13 yards out for a 14-0 lead.

MV’s next possession was another turnover. Johnston capped off that 57-yard drive with a 1-yard score.

The Vineyarders finally showed some life in responding to that punch. They went on a 58-yard, 10-play drive that ended with a brilliant Nick Gross reception in the left corner of the end zone – an over-the-shoulder catch as he fell and was hounded by a defender.

Brooks Billingham’s extra point made it 21-7 and there was a stirring on the MV sideline, but not for long. It took Amesbury only six plays to counter, with a Flannigan 4-yard bootleg and William Medvitz’s fourth extra point making it 28-7. MV fumbled again on the ensuing kickoff, and three plays later a scrambling Flannigan found Ryan Dragon for a 26-yard score and a 34-7 lead with 40 seconds left in the half.

“You never want to play like that in your last high school football game,” Herman said. “It leaves a bad taste.” It only got worse. Flannigan scored on the first play of the second half, a 61-yard run on a rollout right on which he wove his way through some ineffectual tackling for a 40-7 lead.

MV scored twice more in the fourth quarter, a 13-yard TD pass from McCarthy to Gross, and a McCarthy 1-yard run with 38 seconds left. All that did was make the score a more respectable 40-19. McCarthy finished with 13 rushes for 73 yards. He threw for 151 yards, going 10-for-22 passing with two TDs and an interception.

“You have to look at what we accomplished this year,” Herman said. “We went 11-2, won Mayflower Large outright. We made it to the Super Bowl for first time in five years. I’m still proud of the way these guys conducted themselves like champions all season. They deserved to be here. It’s a shame we couldn’t have played a lot better.”

The Vineyarders, champions of Mayflower Large, carry an 11-1 record into Saturday’s Super Bowl at Bentley University against Amesbury, a 34-0 winner over Whittier last night. The Boston North champion Knights finish 10-2.

Once again it was quarterback Mike McCarthy leading the way for MV, engineering the option to near perfection. McCarthy, a 1,000-yard rusher during the regular season, ran for 122 yards and three touchdowns and threw for 95 yards and another score – a 36-yard pass to Randall Jette in the second quarter that made it 14-0. He had a 6-yard TD run to begin the scoring, a 9-yard TD run in the second quarter and a 4-yard score in the third.

“Our option game was really working,” McCarthy said. “We mixed it up, pass and run. They started coming up on the run and we threw it deep on the pass. They dropped back, and we ran underneath.” The senior had to share the podium with a lot of purple-clad Vineyarders last night.

Top billing arguably went to a defensive unit that contained – as much as is possible – the hard-running South Boston troika of quarterback Derick Willis and backs Akeem George and Daquan Hill. Willis gained 89 yards (though he ran for probably three times that going side to side looking for open space) and Hill had 91 yards.

The MV defense held the Knights to 187 yards on the ground in a magnificent effort. Pat Hart had a couple of sacks, and Cody Brewer, Matt Costello and Nick Gross were also dominating.

“You saw their running ability. They are tough kids,” MV coach Donald Herman said of the Knights. “I’m glad we don’t have to face them again. I can’t say enough about how our team came out. We were ready to play physical. We know we have one more to go and it will be our toughest yet.”

The 2008 Vineyarders became the first team in school history to score more than 400 points, last night’s 42 pushing them to 418. The previous high was in 1997, when MV scored 396 points in 12 games.

That means while McCarthy may be the main cog, there are a lot of other weapons. “If they want to stop the option, we can throw the ball,” Herman said. “It’s a very multiple-oriented option.”

Brewer gained 80 yards on 11 carries, including a 10-yard scoring run in the third quarter. Gross added 53 yards on six carries, and Costello scored on a 17-yard fourth-quarter touchdown and caught three McCarthy passes for 59 yards.

South Boston made a game of it when George hauled in a 9-yard scoring pass after a wild scramble by Willis. Willis ran in the 2-point conversion, and it was 14-8 with 3:47 to go in the half. MV answered with a 75-yard, 12-play march, McCarthy running option right for the final 9 yards with just 39 seconds left in the half. The quarterback gained 50 of those yards with his own runs, and another 14 on a pass to Costello.

That made it 20-8 at the half, and the Vineyarders built their lead from there. Brewer’s 10-yard score capped a 67-yard drive with 2:03 left in the third. The Knights fumbled away the ensuing kickoff, and McCarthy scored from 4 yards out with 41 seconds remaining in the third, putting MV up 35-8.

After Costello’s 17-yard run early in the fourth, the Knights went on a 76-yard, 12-play drive of their own with Hill scoring from the 3. Willis gained 53 of his yards on the march.

Now it’s on to Bentley for MV – and a crack at improving on their 5-2 Super Bowl record.