AUBURN — Edward Little was faced with an unfamiliar situation Friday night under the lights at Walton Field: The Eddies held a lead after the first quarter.

Like the field conditions underneath them, that lead eventually eroded. With tackles tough to come by in the slimy, slippery conditions, Skowhegan ramped up its running game over the final three periods, ground out 366 yards on the ground and ran over Edward Little 38-13 to give the Indians’ once-fading playoff hopes new life.

“We felt like we needed this game,” Skowhegan coach Mike Marston said. “I told the kids beforehand that’s what we needed. I felt we needed to approach it that way.”

Leading the way for the 2-4 Indians, Brad Taylor carried the ball 20 times for 195 yards and three touchdowns. He had a pair of 27-yard runs to set up touchdowns and scored from 12, three and 1 yard out.

“We were nervous coming out because we’ve had a tough season so far,” Taylor said. “We wanted to prove to everyone that we are a team to be dealt with and we wanted to show it tonight. We started hitting hard, doing our assignments right and executing perfectly.”

Taylor was only one of a three-headed monster out of the Skowhegan backfield Friday. Dustin Corson ran 12 times for 84 yards, while QB Kaleb Austin managed 71 yards on nine carries, including a 45-yard run on the first play of the game.

“It’s good, it lets you catch your breath and you’re not winded all the time,” Taylor said. “Not all the weight’s on your shoulders running the ball. It’s good that we get to share the load and win as a team.”

Edward Little coach Darren Hartley was short on words after the loss Friday, saying only that his squad was defeated by a better football team.

“They played a good game, a better game than we did,” Hartley said.

The Eddies escaped the first quarter with a 7-0 lead, though, thanks to an eight-play, 70-yard drive capped by a Teven Colon off-tackle run to the right side.

Skowhegan struck back on the first play of the second quarter as Taylor knifed through the line on a toss — the Indians’ play of choice all night — for 12 yards.

Corson picked off the Eddies on the second play of their next drive, setting up another scoring drive. With 7:46 to play in the first half, Skowhegan took the lead for good.

EL climbed back to within a point with 4:03 to play in the first half on a Brandon Vye dive, but the Indians pulled away, scoring on a Corson 9-yard scamper with a minute left.

Taylor capped a clock-grinding 14-play, 76-yard drive in the third, and Austin slipped into the end zone early in the fourth to cap the scoring.