And the Lewiston High School football team also had to do so without their quarterback.

It made for an uphill battle for the Blue Devils in a 50-0 loss to the Stags.

Lewiston had two good opportunities to score in the first half, but couldn’t keep pace with Cheverus otherwise. Lewiston produced a good effort but was overmatched by a seasoned Cheverus club.

“I’m proud of the way the kids played,” Lewiston coach Bill County said. “I think we hit pretty well today. There was no quit in them. It was a good football game. I was proud of the way the kids played. Obviously Cheverus is an outstanding team. They don’t make mistakes, and they did early on, but they got fired up and made sure they didn’t pay the price for it.”

Lewiston was without senior quarterback Quintarian Brown. He was injured during the opening-night loss to Oxford Hills. Sophomore Jared Rubin took the snaps and did well in a tough situation.

Lewiston even started with a little momentum, recovering a loose ball on an onside kick on the opening kickoff. The Blue Devils drove as close as the 5 but were stopped. Later in the half, Lewiston got as close as the 7. Again the drive stalled. Lewiston had a touchdown pass to Kyle Ullrich ruled out of bounds during that series, even though the catch appeared complete inbounds.

“We started off the game pretty well,” County said. “Those two early scores where we didn’t get in, I don’t think they were game changers, but I think the kids would have felt better about the pace of the game. All of a sudden it was 14-0 the other way.”

Joe Fitzpatrick scored two touchdowns and rushed for 150 yards on 11 carriers. Rylan Benedict scored once and gained 56 yards on five carries while quarterback Isaac Dunn threw for two touchdowns and 107 yards on three completions.

“They kind of crowded the box against a little bit and we took what was there,”Cheverus coach John Wolfgram said.

Lewiston’s Stefan Porter rushed for 48 yards on 17 carries while Stone Colby gained 41 yards on 12 tries.

It was Ace Curry that recovered the fumble on the kickoff. Lewiston took it from the Cheverus 41 and got down to the 5 on runs by Porter and Colby. Cheverus stuffed the Blue Devils on third and fourth down to stop the drive.

“That was a nice stop that we had down close,” Wolfgram said. “They had the opening kickoff and got that fumble. I thought we had a nice stop and after that, I thought we did well on the line of scrimmage.”

Cheverus totalled 285 yards on the ground on 30 carries. Lewiston managed just 91 on 38 attempts.

“We have pretty good balance in the backfield,” Wolfgram said. “We used that balance well.”

Lewiston stopped the Stags first drive but then fumbled the ball away. That led to a quick Cheverus score, a 26-yard pass from Dunn to Kenny Drelich for a 7-0 lead with 4:16 left in the first.

After a short Lewiston possession, Cheverus took advantage of a 10-yard punt.That came after a penalty during a longer kick forced Lewiston to punt over.  It took just two plays to make it 14-0 with 1:11 left in the first. Fitzpatrick took it in from the 11.

The lead went to 21-0 early in the second. Fitzpatrick rushed in from 15 yards out for the score.

Lewiston had another solid drive that got them into the red zone. A pass interference call got them to the 7, but Colby was stopped on fourth down.

Cheverus then took it the other way and made it 28-0 with 39 seconds left in the half. Dunn connected with Drelich again for a 29-yard scoring pass.

In the third, Justin Johnston scored from the one and Benedict scored on a 14-yard run. Then Cheverus added a 24-yard run in the fourth from Sam Thayer.

“It was a very well played game by both teams,” County said. “There was no unsportsmanlike conduct. I thought both team played like men.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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