GRAY — Gray-New Gloucester had enough to overcome in its comeback bid Saturday night with Freeport’s bend-but-don’t-break defense. It didn’t need the clock working against it, too.

But time did indeed run out on the Patriots when Ben MacMillan and David Schaedler tackled Sam Johnson at the Freeport 30 as time ran out to preserve the Falcons’ 18-12 win.

It was a night of long, grinding drives for both teams. Gray-New Gloucester (0-2) entered Freeport territory on all seven of its possessions but hit a wall five times. Freeport (1-1), meanwhile, had a couple of huge fourth down conversions to keep two scoring drives and another clock-killing drive alive.

“The kids stepped up when they had to,” Freeport coach Rob Grover said. “We still have to work on wrapping up and making better tackles, but overall, we stepped up when we had to.”

Both teams featured well-balanced running attacks, with David Schaedler (18 carries, 110 yards, TD) leading the Falcons and Johnson (18 carries, 110 yards) leading the Patriots.

But it was two pass plays by the Falcons that might have made the difference. The first, a 30-yard connection from Eli Fox to Joe Nixon put them in front for good with 10:27 to go.

“I knew it was a big play. I just had to look for the ball, hope to catch it and get into the end zone,” said Nixon, who dove for the left pylon to do just that.

Nixon came up with a big defensive play on Gray’s next possession. With a couple of his teammates stacking up Johnson on a run, Nixon ripped the ball out of the senior halfback’s hands at Freeport’s 30 with 7:12 remaining.

“They were driving on us. They were going to get it in if something didn’t happen,” Nixon said. “I just tried to get the ball out so we could run the clock down on them. My teammates held him up and I just did my part.”

Freeport drove to the Gray 39, where it faced third-and-inches. But a false start penalty, run for no gain and a delay of game penalty pushed them back into a 4th-and-10 at the Patriots’ 29.

Rather than punt, Grover decided to roll the dice and called a pass play. Fox found Jake Perry wide open in the left flat for a 36-yard gain that extended the drive and allowed the Falcons to take precious time off the clock.

“There was a little bit (of hesitancy to go for it),” Grover said. “Jake’s neck is hurt a little bit but he’s got great hands and I said ‘Jake, we need you for one play.’ Their safeties were coming up, so I just felt confident it was there.”

Freeport reached the doorstep of putting the game away with a score, but the Patriots recovered a fumble at the 1 with 1:29 left. But with just one time out, a series of runs by QB Zack Haskell (13 carries, 93 yards, TD) and a personal foul penalty on the Falcons could only get the Patriots so far.

“We did a nice job. I’m proud of the kids,” Gray-New Gloucester coach Jim Hersom said. “I asked them to come together as a team and I thought we played pretty tough. We had a hard time stopping them in the first half, made a couple of adjustments and the kids did a nice job. We were just one or two kids away from breaking some of those runs.”

The Patriots defense started the game with a big play of its own when Justin McKenna intercepted a pass at his own 37. The offense converted that turnover into a 10-play drive capped by Haskell’s eight-yard keeper for a quick 6-0 lead.

Freeport tied it on its next series, thanks in part to a fourth-down pass interference penalty by the Patriots, with Schaedler’s 13-yard touchdown run.

Gray-New Gloucester entered Freeport territory again on its next series, then Darnel Strothers and Jeffery Goldrup teamed up to drop Johnson for a loss on 4th-and-1 from the Freeport 23. The Falcons marched from there to a 12-6 lead on MacMillan’s six-yard TD run with 25 seconds left in the half.

The Patriots tied the game at 12-12 on Brandon Thibeault’s 4-yard TD run with 57 seconds to go in the third quarter.