AUBURN – Who moved Halloween, anyway?

Call it crazy and wax about the weirdness, if you wish. Just make sure to call Edward Little a football playoff winner for the first time in six years after the Red Eddies survived Messalonskee, 28-21, in an Eastern Class A quarterfinal Saturday at Walton Field.

Defensive touchdowns by Bruce Gerry and Grady Burns – Gerry’s haymaker coming at the end of a head-scratching untimed down on the final play of the first half – put No. 2 EL (8-1) in cruise control with a three-touchdown lead.

Then No. 7 Messalonskee (3-6) and its double wing offense went all Texas Tech and turned the twilight of its Pine Tree Conference playoff life into a game of pitch-and-catch in the park.

It led to fourth-quarter touchdown runs by Matt Stuart and Dylan Foster and brought the Eagles to the brink of a tying or go-ahead touchdown in the final minute. Sean Daigle, Teven Colon and Devin Jackson stopped Messalonskee on fourth down at the 6 with 30 seconds left.

“The playoffs aren’t any normal game. They’re not going to roll over for us, that’s for sure,” said Gerry. “They were just fighting. They’re a tough team. I’ve got a lot of respect for those boys.”

EL will host Lewiston at 3 p.m. Saturday with a berth in the PTC title game at stake. The Red Eddies’ end of the bargain seemed a foregone conclusion after they countered a Messalonskee TD with two scores in a freakish final 49 seconds of the first half.

Cody Goddard restored the Eddies’ lead with a 64-yard laser to Shane Ciriello. Goddard (8-of-18, 198 yards) also rushed for the two-point conversion and a 14-7 edge.

Messalonskee’s choice to use its two remaining timeouts had bizarre consequences.

Out of the first huddle, Foster threw a harmless quick-out to Andrew Breton for a two-yard loss. The clock dissolved to zero, and most EL players reached the locker room doorstep before the referees flashed the universal come-back signal, indicating that Messalonskee requested another timeout before the horn.

No time was put back on the clock, though, and for all the trouble, Messalonskee attempted an innocuous quarterback sneak. Gerry ripped the ball out of Foster’s hands (“The play of his life,” raved EL coach Darren Hartley) and covered the 32 yards to the end zone without pursuit.

“It was crazy going into halftime after we scored that touchdown,” Burns said. “We were all amped up. They just didn’t quit.”

Not even after Alex Clark leveled Foster from the blind side and Burns carted the resulting fumble 15 yards for a TD with 5:33 remaining in the third quarter. Goddard’s two-point connection with Dominique Bailey made it 28-7.

EL lapsed into the equivalent of an offensive stall from that point, and the Eagles stuffed the run to the tune of a single first down for the balance.

Foster’s 71-yard bomb to Breton on the second play of the fourth period roused Messalonskee from its late-afternoon slumber. Buddy Foss’ tackle at the goal line saved the immediate touchdown, but Stuart scored on the next play.

“The real momentum swing was when we got that first touchdown there in the second half,” said Messalonskee senior tight end Chris Pelletier, who caught a 9-yard TD pass from Foster (16-of-19, 215 yards) to start the second-quarter madness. “Then we just kept fighting back, and our defense had some big stops.”

No stops were bigger than the series of EL gang tackles after Messalonskee moved into position with first-and-10 at the 14 in the final minute of regulation.

Gerry and Daigle stopped Desmond Nutter for a two-yard gain on a pass into the left flat. Brandon Vye and Gerry met Stuart after a five-yard run. Pelletier lost a yard when Vye and Colon smothered him after a grab along the home sideline, and Stuart only made it halfway to the first-down marker when the heart of the EL defense held its ground on a toss play.

Vye, Clark, Colon and James Foss – all underclassmen – were among the unsung defensive heroes after captain Dylon Therrien went out with a sprained knee ligament on the Eddies’ first defensive series. Therrien was held out for precautionary reasons and is expected to play next week.

“Me and Grady, thunder and lightning up front, I think we did well,” Gerry said. “The seniors all had to pick it up. We picked up the slack pretty well, I think, because we got the win.”