LEWISTON — Lewiston could smell blood when winless Skowhegan entered blustery Don Roux Field Friday night. But the Blue Devils also remembered what their coaches had told them — that they could easily turn into the Indians’ prey.

Needing a quick start to keep the emotionally and physically-battered Indians down, Lewiston scored on its first three possessions and never let Skowhegan back up in a 28-8 Pine Tree Conference win.

“We had heard they had three starters out… and we felt like what we needed to do was come out of the gate real fast,
real aggressive, and hit them as hard as we could early,” Lewiston
coach Bill County said.  “Traditionally, those replacement kids, if they have some success early, they play well the rest of the game. If you can get them early, you can get them on their heels.”

Andy Pulk put them on their heels quickly and ended up rushing for 183 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries for the Blue Devils, who improved to 3-0.

“We wanted to get the lead quick,” said Pulk, who also had a sack on defense. “Even though they were 0-2, it was still the hardest game we’ve played. We felt this was a big step for us. Coach told us all week that just because they were 0-2 doesn’t mean that they’re not capable of beating us.”

Skowhegan won the coin toss and took the wind, but Lewiston had little trouble running into the breeze. They started the game’s opening drive from their own 42 and needed just four plays before Pulk’s first TD, a pretty 33-yard jaunt where the senior tailback ran off right tackle, juked a defender to the outside then sprinted for the end zone.

“There was a blocker there, so I figured he might try to get him out if I got him to go, so I went outside and came back in,” Pulk said.

A nice Peter Blais block on the outside sprung Pulk for his second touchdown, a 42-yarder that put the Devils up 14-0 with 3:43 left in the first quarter.

Pulk shared the workload on Lewiston’s third drive, teaming up with Jeff Keene and QB Ronnie Turner (five carries, 57 yards) to march the Devils 53 yards in eight plays. Turner capped it with a 1-yard TD run to make it 21-0.

Skowhegan moved the ball in the first half, but interceptions by Matt Therrien and Turner helped kept it off the board. Making matters worse for the Indians, QB Jordan McGowan had to be helped off the field late in the first half.

Trying to get a spark in the second half, Skowhegan turned the ball over on downs in its own territory on its first two possessions. Pulk made the Indians pay the second time with another 33-yard TD run where, again aided by a Blais block, he ran out of a tackle along the sideline and found paydirt.

“The last one especially was just outstanding,” County said. “He came back to the bench and I said, ‘That’s you.’ The thing that impressed me about Andy is we know that he’s got great speed, but he’s also a big and strong kid, and I think tonight a couple of times he really stuck his nose into the off-tackle plays and showed me a little bit of fire tonight.” 

Skowhegan (0-3), which came to town off tough 22-20 loss to Brunswick and without three injured starters, including top running back Garrett Nelson, left Lewiston licking more wounds as starting McGowan and top rusher Michael Roy (25 carries, 153 yards) both ended the night on crutches.

“We’ve faced a lot of adversity and the kids are pulling together,” Skowhegan coach Mike Marston said. “We didn’t get discouraged for one second.”

Roy hobbled off the field in the middle of the Indians’ only scoring drive. Dustin Corson took over for him and got them on the board with a 2-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter.