BIDDEFORD — For the East squad, the warm and fuzzies of playing for charity wore off the instant the West’s Steve Martin stripped the East’s Christian Powers on the opening kickoff return.

It wasn’t too long after that that the East would find itself in a 15-0 hole. But with the arms of Ronnie Turner and Eric Theiss, the hands of Nolan Turner and the legs of Lonnie Hackett on its side, the East had no reason to panic.

Lewiston’s Ronnie Turner and Leavitt’s Theiss combined to throw for 349 yards and five touchdowns to stagger the West and Hackett rushed for 156 yards and a touchdown to finish it off in a high-flying 40-35 victory in the 21st Annual Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic Saturday at Waterhouse Field.

The game annually raises money for the Shriners Hospitals and Burns Institutes. The West now leads the all-time series, 15-6, but the East has won four of the last five.

“It’s an All-Star game, so people are going to have their ups, people are going to have their downs,” Ronnie Turner said. “Our offensive coach (Leavitt’s Mike Hathaway) got us together and said, ‘They can’t stop us,’ and they couldn’t.”

The East stopped itself more often than the West did in the highest-scoring Lobster Bowl ever. It held a 570-407 lead in total yards, but seven first half fumbles, two of which were lost, three interceptions and numerous penalties snuffed several promising drives.

The West seemed to have all of the momentum after it took a 29-20 lead when Windham’s Jackson Taylor (16-for-24, 184 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) hooked up with Portland’s Jacob Alexander on a 13-yard touchdown pass. Back-to-back West penalties pushed the extra point attempt back to the 30, but Sacopee Valley’s Eddie Warren, a double-amputee who has prosthetic legs from the Shriners Hospitals, booted the PAT just over the crossbar from 40 yards, setting off a wild celebration along the West sideline and bleachers.

“It seemed like there were just as many people as a state game here,” said Dirigo’s Tyler Chiasson, one of the West’s defensive standouts. “There’s some big hits and there’s some big kids in there. It’s fun. You’ve just got to go all out.”

Aided by a pass interference penalty on 3rd-and-10 and a key third-down conversion to Hampden’s Nolan Turner (eight catches, 186 yards TD), Theiss directed the East down the field on a 11-play, 65-yard drive. Theiss (5-for-15, 191 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs)  capped it with a 25-yard TD pass to Brunswick’s Rashon Edgerton that helped pull the East within two on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The defense got the East the ball back in quick order. Turner (14-for-22, 158 yards, 2 TDs) then directed a 67-yard scoring march, capped when he found Billy Wetherbee of John Bapst open on a wheel route for a 16-yard touchdown that put the East up for good, 33-29, with 11:02 left.

“Coach said that that wheel was open early, and I saw Eric go to it on the touchdown before to Rashon,” said Turner, who is headed to Dean College, a Massachusetts junior college. “So I just dropped back and looked off the safety a little bit. I saw Foden was kind of cheating with the ‘out’ and just put it up there and let Wetherbee make the play.”

“I was tremendously impressed with both of them,” East head coach Bill County of Lewiston said of Turner and Theiss. “Eric Theiss is just such a controlled guy and runs this offense so well, not only throwing but running the option and quarterback trap. And Ronnie made great decisions. He looked off a couple of receivers and came back to his No. 1 target, which is a skill that I think he developed this week.”

The East defense continued to buckle down, holding the West to 170 total yards in the second half. First, it stopped Jackson on 4th-and-7 near midfield. After Cape Elizabeth’s Tom Foden intercepted a Theiss pass in the end zone, the defense held again. This time, Matt Pellerin, a defensive tackle from Leavitt, dropped Foden for a four-yard loss on 4th-and-6.

“We just went into the locker room at halftime, talked about what needed to be done, and just got the job done,” said Pellerin, who is bound for Bates. “I just felt like I needed to get the job done. I put it on myself and got in the backfield.”

The East took over at its own 48 with 4:25 remaining. With two of its top backs, Leavitt’s Josh Strickland and Messalonskee’s Desmond Nutter sidelined by injuries, it leaned on Hackett to eat yards and clock. The Fitzpatrick Trophy finalist did one better, ripping off a 34-yard touchdown with 2:19 remaining to give the East an insurmountable 40-29 lead.

“Lonnie Hackett just doesn’t get tired,” County said. “He’s got a great motor. He’s a very bright kid. He understands what we’re doing. But when he broke that big one, it felt good.”

The West didn’t go down without a fight, Jackson drove 64 yards on just two pass plays, including a 33-yard connection with Oak Hill’s Ben Foss that got it down to the 2. Ryan Curit pounded it in form there with 1:34 remaining, but the ensuing on-side kick attempt didn’t travel the required 10 yards, and the East gave the ball to Hackett to run out the clock.

It was a long way from the nightmare start for the East. Martin’s strip of Powers on the opening kickoff gave the West the ball at the East 7. Jonathan Day scored from there three plays later, and a 1-yard TD plunge by Curit with 7:39 left in the first quarter made it 15-0.

The East finally got on the board on a 30-yard TD pass from Theiss to Edgerton. The West opened the lead to 15 again on a 29-yard scoring run by Trask with 13:29 to play in the first half, but Turner and Orio hooked up on a seven-yard scoring pass two minutes later and Edgetron executed a pretty jump pass to Morse’s Jason Cavanagh for the two-pointer that made it 22-14.

That’s where it stayed until the East’s first drive of the second half, when Theiss found Turner for a 73-yard touchdown pass, the third-longest pass in Lobster Bowl history, which made it a 22-20 contest.

Play got a bit chippy at times, as the two teams combined for over 160 penalty yards, but the purpose of the game remained utmost in the players’ and coaches’ minds after the game.

“Goal No. 1 is to put on a great show for the Shriners, because the cause that they’re working for is such a great one,” said Bonny Eagle coach Kevin Cooper, the West head coach. “I think we put on a great show for the Shriners. I don’t think anyone would dispute that. Goal No.2 was to win, and we didn’t achieve that, so it’s time to move on, I guess. I don’t think they’ll let us play again next week.”

Notes: Hackett was named the  MVP for the East, Foden, who rushed for 51 yards and had an interception, was the West MVP …The John R. Schmidlin Award, given annually to the most outstanding senior football player in the state, was given out for each class. Strickland won for Class B, while Dirigo’s Nic Crutchfield earned Class C honors and Jackson Taylor took home the Class A award. Crutchfield also won the Team Advisor Award for the West, given to the player on each squad who exhibited good character and leadership and went “above and beyond” during training camp.