AUBURN — The tension grew thick as the tropical night air as the second half of Friday night’s Pine Tree Conference opener between Brunswick and Edward Little evolved from potential blowout to nail-biter.

Edward Little rallied from a 21-6 deficit to pull within a point on Tevon Colon’s 41-yard touchdown run with 3:25 remaining. But Brunswick’s defense stopped Colon when it had to — on the Red Eddies’ ensuing two-point try, and the Dragons held on for a 21-20 victory.

Junior running back Dylan Walton ran for 147 yards on 24 carries and scored all three Brunswick touchdowns. EL tailback Teven Colon tallied 150 all-purpose yards, including 94 yards and a touchdown on 10 rushes, while QB Josh Delong ran for 92 yards and threw for 71 yards and a touchdown.

But the Eddies were forced to scramble, literally, when Delong went down with leg cramps after a 26-yard run with a little over 3:30 left in the game. Colon, who played quarterback last year, took his place and took the next snap 41 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown that made it a one-point game.

Unsuccessful on its only PAT attempt earlier in the night, EL decided to go for two. Colon’s run up the middle was snuffed out by defensive tackle Justin Libby at the line of scrimmage.

Adam Brown recovered EL’s ensuing onside kick attempt, but a Teague Smith fumble gave the Eddies the ball back at midfield with 1:55 to go.

With Delong still cramped up, Colon took the snaps again but couldn’t gain any ground. His pass on first down fell incomplete. He was stopped for a four-yard loss  on second down and for no gain by Libby on third down. His desperation pass to Zach Leblonde on 4th-and-14 was knocked out of bounds to end EL’s comeback hopes.

“We had to overcome a little adversity, losing our quarterback,” EL coach Dave Sterling said. “When we need to throw the ball, we’d rather have him in there.”

“Everybody was tired,” Walton said. “We thought the game was over and everybody was letting up, which we shouldn’t have done. Edward Little came hard. They showed they’ve got some skills on both sides of the ball.”

The game had the makings of a shootout early. Brunswick scored 3:22 in when Walton took a handoff on 4th-and-3 and went off right tackle for a 31-yard touchdown and a 6-0 lead.

“That was 32-power. Thirty-two power is probably our main play right now. We  do that play 50 times a practice,” Waltons said. “It was just good blocking.”

EL responded with a seven-play, 72-yard drive capped when Delong (7-for-12) found LeBlonde cutting a square-out route to the right sideline in the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown that tied it. A bad snap on the kick attempt kept it at 6-6.

The Dragons drove 69 yards on their next possession and again found paydirt on fourth down. Needing 10 yards to move the chains this time, QB Kyle Franklin (5-for-8, 80 yards) threw a screen pass to Walton, who faked EL defenders out with a couple of bob-and-weave moves to get to the end zone. Brunswick faked the PAT and holder Max Roberts ran in the two-pointer for a 14-6 lead.

“We got caught, coverage-wise, looking in the backfield (on the touchdown),” Sterling said. “It’s something we have to work on, and we will get better at.”

Brunswick survived two fumbles late in the half to maintain that lead. EL had the ball to start the second half, and looked like it would start in good starting field position with a return to its own 42. But an off-sides penalty on the kick by Brunswick forced a re-kick. With the second chance, the Dragons went for an on-side kick, which they recovered at their own 49.

EL’s defense stopped Brunswick inside its own 10-yard line, but the shift in field position eventually cost the Eddies, as two possessions later the Dragons only needed to drive 51 yards in seven plays to add on to their lead. Walton went over the top from a yard out to make it 21-6 with 52 seconds left in the third quarter.

A 36-yard punt return by Colon set the Eddies up at Brunswick’s 19. After he was sacked by Brown for a nine-yard loss on first down, Delong completed a 19-yard pass to LeBlonde on 3rd-and-13 to keep the drive going. Dylan Deconzo ran it in from three-yards out and Delong hooked up with Colon on the two-point pass to pull the Eddies within 21-14 with 5:52 remaining.

“To their credit, EL kept fighting the whole game,” Brunswick coach Dan Cooper said. “They outplayed us a lot there in the second half.”

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