LEWISTON – The Lewiston Blue Devils were told that if they wanted to wrap up a frustrating season on a high note, they would have to persevere.

Sure enough, the Blue Devils overcame some first half mistakes Saturday and dominated Edward Little, 34-0, at Don Roux Field.

“At the beginning of the game, coach (Bill County) said that bad things might happen early but we were going to get it done,” said George Foisy, who rushed for a game-high 146 yards and two touchdowns and preserved the shutout in grand fashion with a 103-yard interception return for a touchdown.

“We had kind of a rough year, but this makes up for it,” he added. “This was our championship.

With the victory, Lewiston picked up the Alan Clark Sr. Memorial Trophy at a post-game ceremony involving both teams and ended its season with back-to-back wins after an 0-6 start.

“We talked a lot during the week about (Edward Little) being very good at keeping you off the scoreboard,” said Bill County. “We preached all week long, good things may not happen early on, but we’ve got to be patient and give our offense a chance to get on track.”

That’s exactly what they did. The Blue Devils squandered two early fumble recoveries in EL territory with a fumble of their own and then by getting stuffed on fourth-and-2 at the 19. EL’s defense, led by Nick Barajas and Brent Miller, hung tough for the first three quarters before eventually wearing down.

Lewiston’s defense, meanwhile, came out breathing fire. They held the Eddies (1-7) to -2 yards net in the first quarter and did an excellent job against EL’s passing game. Linebacker Patric McLellan (three sacks) pressured QB Steve Simpson (12-for-25, 79 yards) frequently and the secondary kept EL’s receivers from breaking any big plays.

“The thing I was most pleased with is our secondary played really well,” County said. “McClellan had a tough assignment because we went into a 40 defense, which leaves him all by himself in the middle, and that’s a big assignment. In order to cover the pass, he was the Lone Ranger, and boy, what a great job he did. He made some big plays, and when he made a hit, they were some pretty serious hits.”

“It wasn’t just me. The ends did a great job as well,” said McLellan. “We were just doing pretty much anything to obstruct the quarterback from throwing the ball.”

Lewiston controlled the ball early but didn’t have anything to show for it until Foisy broke a run 43 yards down the left side to the EL 2, then pounded the ball in on the first play of the second quarter to put the Devils on the board.

EL responded with its best drive of the first half, marching 41 yards on 10 plays to the Lewiston 21. McClellan’s first sack pushed them back to the 26. Facing fourth-and-12 at the 23, EL tried a screen pass to Miller over the middle, but he was dropped immediately for no gain by Foisy.

“We played real hard, particularly in the first half, and had a couple of opportunities,” said EL coach Jim Hersom. “We were able to get a couple of drives going and if we scored on them, it could have given us a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm.”

Lewiston had the ball deep in EL territory on its next two possessions, only to fumble both times, with Barajas and Chris Ringer making the recoveries for the Eddies to preserve the 6-0 score into halftime.

Jared Turcotte (28 carries, 125 yards) doubled the Devils’ lead with a nifty 24-yard TD jaunt, then ran in the two-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 7:02 left in the third quarter.

EL had a couple of chances to get back in the game early in the fourth quarter, invading Lewiston territory on consecutive possessions only to be thwarted by Luke Collette. Collette picked off Simpson to end the Eddies’ first foray at Lewiston’s 27, then dropped Robie Leighton for a 10-yard loss on a fourth down screen pass to squelch the second.

Lewiston then amped up its running game on the Eddies’ tiring defense, capping its next two drives with a six-yard TD run by Foisy and a two-yard touchdown run by Jeff Briggs. The Devils finished with 304 yards on the ground while holding the Eddies just 33 yards rushing.

“Being out here on the field quite a bit defensively like we were really took its toll,” Hersom said. “Lewiston played a real fine game. They’re a physical team and a lot of credit goes to them.”

EL threatened to spoil the shutout by driving down to the two yard line in less than a minute, but Foisy picked off a Troy Barnies pass three yards deep in the end zone and raced down the right sideline untouched for the Devils’ final TD.

“I think both teams were angry and they played well and EL justifiably wanted to punch one in and break the shutout at the end of the game,” County said. “It’s been an enjoyable last three days. The communities did a nice job (with other activities tied to the game, such as a parade and alumni game) and I told the kids at midfield that 10-15 years from now when all of these annual events are bigger, these kids will be remembered for helping to start all of that back up.”