LEWISTON – Gardiner went into Friday night’s PTC South showdown with Lewiston hoping to showcase a more balanced offense, but it seemed the torrential rains would force Tiger coach Matt Brown to put that game plan in his back pocket.

“We had a lot of stuff in that we wanted to do passing-wise, but the weather took that away,” said Brown.

The Tigers had completed two passes all season going into last night. But with his team trailing 6-0 and facing a third-and-24 at the Lewiston 34 and under two minutes left, Brown had little choice but to ask QB Seth Wilkins to throw into the wind and hope for a miracle. Wilkins obliged, sending the game into overtime, where Nate Munzing gave Gardiner a 12-6 win with a three-yard TD run.

Wilkins, who attempted, and completed, one other pass all night, caused the extra session by connecting with a wide-open Craig Toulouse. He caught the ball at about the 10 yard line on the right sideline and ran through several puddles and over two tacklers on his way into the end zone to tie the game with 1:27 left.

Lewiston earned a reprieve when Tom Colby’s extra-point attempt fell short and the game went into overtime. The Blue Devils (1-2) won the toss, took possession first at their own 10 yard line and pounded the ball down to the seven on three straight runs by James Spaulding (19 rushes, 44 yards, TD) and George Foisy (11 carries, 69 yards). The Devils lined up for a 25-yard field-goal attempt, but on a night where few could get a handle on the football, holder Tyler Brooks bobbled the snap and was dragged down at the five as tried to run the ball in.

Munzing (16 carries, 56 yards), playing in his first game since spraining his ankle in the Tigers’ season opener, ran over right tackle three plays into Gardiner’s first OT possession and into the end zone virtually untouched to set off a wild celebration between the rain drops.

“I think doing all my exercises for my ankle helped me in this weather,” said Munzing. “I was taking short, choppy steps and we were telling our offensive line to do the same thing, and they did a great job.”

“This is exactly what we expected – two teams that like to play power football, two teams that play great defense,” said Lewiston coach Bill County. “We had them with the third-and-20, and we made a mistake in coverage and they got a touchdown. Then overtime’s kind of a crapshoot.”

The odds of either team scoring seemed pretty dicey for most of the game. Both teams struggled to hold onto the ball (12 fumbles, five lost combined) and didn’t gain much ground when they did. Lewiston had just two first downs for the game, Gardiner six. The stars of the first half were punters Brandon LeClair for Lewiston and Justin Lebourdais for Gardiner.

Each team seemed to be waiting for the big play, and the Devils finally got it on their first snap of the second half when Foisy busted through the line of scrimmage for a 46-yard run that set them up at the Gardiner 24. Spaulding kept the drive alive by converting a fourth-and-1 at the 15, then three plays later, shook off a tackler at the line of scrimmage and dragged another Tiger with him three yards into the end zone to give Lewiston a 6-0 lead with 5:23 left in the third quarter.