Senior James Spaulding carries Lewiston past cross-town rival EL.
AUBURN – For the first 24 minutes, Lewiston controlled everything but the scoreboard. In the second half, the Blue Devils took care of that detail as well.
Lewiston (3-5) climbed on the back of senior James Spaulding (46 carries for 233 yards and three touchdowns) to down Edward Little, 19-7, in Eastern Class A Pine Tree Conference football action at Walton Field Saturday.
The win not only brought the Alan Clark Sr. Memorial Trophy back to the Lewiston side of the river, but it also put the Devils back into the Eastern A playoffs, a possibility that seemed unlikely just two weeks ago.
A Windham forfeit of an earlier win put the Devils in charge of their own fate in the final game of the regular season.
Lewiston coach Bill County expressed his relief to his team after the win.
“This really gets the monkey off my back,” said County. “I know the team we will face (in the playoffs) had a good season but with the way you men played today, I will not be afraid of them.”
Despite a two-touchdown margin of victory, Lewiston dominated every aspect of the game. With total offensive yardage at 379-53 in favor of the Devils, it was not comforting to County that his teamed trailed 7-6 at intermission.
After trading turnovers early on (an EL fumble recovery by Brent Miller, and a Lewiston interception by Chris Ford), EL junior Robie Leighton fielded a punt at his own 42-yard line. He appeared to be bottled up within five yards of the catch, but he bounced out left and streaked for the far side of the end zone. Matt Nadeau’s kick made it 7-0 for the Red Eddies (1-7).
The score stood until Lewiston put together a drive that consumed more than half the second quarter.
Starting on their own 32-yard line, the Devils turned to the running back Spaulding for eight consecutive plays to grind the ball into EL territory.
Spaulding covered 22 yards to cap the drive.
Lewiston tried a fake kick on the conversion, but as Spaulding came around the right end looking for the two points, he was caught from behind.
The Devils opened the second half with a seven-minute drive covering 67 yards in 14 plays. Spaulding carried the ball in eight of them.
Senior Mohamed Mohamed helped with a 13-yard carry and Ford found Jake Angelides for 18 more. In the end it was Spaulding putting Lewiston in front for good with a 3-yard run.
Later it was all Spaulding in a five-play scoring drive. He covered the last 56 yards down the left sideline for the insurance score.
“The offensive line, Nick Lajoie, just everybody, (Steve) Poussard, (Matt) Jones, (Jeremy) Dix, Tim Ouellette, everybody,” said Spaulding. “Everything went perfectly the way it should have.”
“This is a big rivalry,” said Spaulding. “Every year we look forward to coming over the bridge and getting something done.”
“The people in Lewiston are great,” said County. “Obviously some people were disappointed last year but EL played well. There was no question that the ride coming over here and the warm-ups today were a little creepy.”
Edward Little coach Jim Hersom was not available for comment.
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