LEWISTON – Sometimes it’s not how many plays you get, but what you do with the ones you have.

The Lewiston football team watched Messalonskee grind it out against them Friday night and dominate the time of possession. The Blue Devils only had three possessions in the second half but made good on all three in a 30-20 victory over the Eagles.

“It’s frustrating,” said Lewiston coach Bill County. “You just want the ball. You keep thinking on the sidelines: ‘Just get me the ball and we’re going to be OK.'”

Lewiston got a pair of rushing scores from Wesley Myers and a touchdown pass from Ronnie Turner to Chuck Faletra to rally for the victory in the second half. Myers finished with 175 yards on 17 carries and scored three touchdowns.

“They were shutting us down running,” said Turner. “The coach threw in a couple new formations. Wesley finally broke loose, and we started to grind it out.”

Messalonskee gained 365 yards on the ground and had 24 first downs to Lewiston’s 13. The Eagles double wing offense marched down the field much of the game and even took the lead midway through the third quarter.

Desmond Nutter led the Eagles with 164 yards on 44 carries while Keenan Knox had 96 yards on 20 carries.

“They’re very good at it,” said County. “They run the double wing extremely well. They wear you down with it. They were physical. (Nutter) is a tremendous athlete. It’s vanilla, but it’s effective. Even if they’re getting a fourth down, it’s fourth down and two.”

The Eagles took a 14-8 lead with 6:11 left in the third. Messalonskee marched downfield on the first possession of the half and capped it off with a Nutter 1-yard plunge. Lewiston answered back in a hurry. Myers zig-zagged through the defense and scampered down the right sideline for 50 yards with 5:15 left in the half for a 16-14 lead.

“That was really big,” said Turner. “We were just waiting for Wesley to break loose. Last year, he scored five touchdowns on them. They did a pretty good job the first half, but the second half, they couldn’t stop him.”

Messalonskee produced another lengthy drive, but the Blue Devils stopped them on fourth-and-five at the 29. Lewiston added to the lead with a short drive that ended when Turner hit Faletra in the end zone for a 24-yard scoring play.

“I rolled out and I saw him turn his head and sprint,” said Turner. “I just threw it up.”

The Eagles got one back when Knox scored his second touchdown of the game with 3:15 left, but that drive erased a large chunk of the final quarter. Lewiston milked the final minutes and got another score when Myers broke a tackle for a 31-yard run with 1:26 left.

Lewiston struggled to get things going offensively early. Messalonskee outgained the Blue Devils 165-87 in the first half. Lewiston was plagued by penalties and dropped passes. County was concerned with how his young offensive line matched up against a physical Eagle club but was pleased with what he saw.

“The second or third time we got the ball, I got a little angry and said, ‘Let’s get at it.'” said County. “We started breaking some inside plays. We put a nice little drive together. That ends up setting up the big plays that Wesley ran. The young kids up front really earned their stripes tonight.”