Listed as a two-way lineman, Adams didn’t play for the Blue Devils the past two seasons after suiting up as a freshman — and when he came back, the coaching staff had him pegged as a nose guard.

Friday, he was the team’s battering ram.

Adams rushed for just 38 total yards on 10 carries, but three of those carries went for touchdowns from inside the 2-yard line as he led the Devils to a 32-29 win over Bangor at Don Roux Field on Friday.

“Laying in bed at night, you think, ‘Well, what can we do?’ Lewiston coach Bruce Nicholas said. “It was, ‘Hey, let’s put Will in the backfield.’ He didn’t play for two years, and he’s been playing nose tackle and not really liking offense. But he can run dive. He can go straight ahead. I guess we made a good move.”

By his own admission, Adams isn’t fancy when he runs. But it’s effective.

“It’s all about your legs and strength,” he said. “It’s a mental game. You don’t have to think about how many yards you get — you just have to run your hardest.”

The Lewiston victory, aided immensely by a late Bangor special teams gaffe, overshadowed a season-defining performance from Rams running back Dane Johnson, who bulldozed his way for 221 yards and three touchdowns of his own on 26 carries. So dominant was Johnson that for most of the second half, Nicholas was telling his defense from the sideline that Johnson would get the ball on every down.

“I was trying to yell over so their coach would give it to somebody else,” Nicholas said with a laugh. “He’s a heck of a football player. We knew he would get the ball a lot. We said all week, ‘We’ve got to tackle him.'”

It didn’t matter.

After only 64 yards and a score in the first half, Johnson got better in the second. His shortest run of the half was a one-yard touchdown run, but beyond that, he never carried for fewer than four yards. Five times he broke for more than 10 yards, and his final carry was a 32-yarder for a score with 4:41 to play in regulation.

That touchdown and ensuing two-point conversion gave the visiting Rams a 29-26 lead.

Lewiston’s ensuing drive looked destined to be a four-and-out, but Nick Harnden’s punt skidded funny in the grass. A retreating Bangor player misplayed the ball as he attempted to cover it up, and the Devils’ Brock Belanger fell on it to give Lewiston new life.

“We’ve had a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and it was about time someone else did something that we could take advantage of,” Nicholas said. “Luckily, on that punt, they touched it, we recovered it and somebody was there.”

Stefan Porter (15 carries, 54 yards), Garrett Poussard (6 for 45) and Adams shared the load on the final drive for Lewiston. The Devils faced a fourth-and-1 from the 2-yard line with 1:02 to play, and instead of giving it back to Adams, the team instead went to quarterback Jared Rubin behind center.

“We were going to do just a normal play, but we decided as a team it would be better if we protected the ball better, and went in with a QB sneak,” Adams said. “It was all on the O-line.”

With a fresh set of downs from the 1, the Devils went back to Adams, who crossed the line nearly untouched on a dive for the winning score.

Bangor wasn’t finished, though. Starting at their own 42, the Rams completed a pass to the Lewiston 31. With 25 seconds to play, Bangor quarterback Jeff Lewis dropped back to pass, was hurried by a defender and heaved the ball to the left sideline, where Lewiston’s Jeremy Madore hauled in an interception to seal the victory.

“We have this thing as a team, it’s, ‘Bend don’t break,'” Adams said. “We just never give up as a team, even if we make mistakes. We’ll put it behind us and we just don’t quit.”

Johnson started things off for Bangor in the first with a 4-yard scamper for a touchdown. After the teams traded fumbles to finish out the opening quarter, Rubin connected with Madore on a pass down the right sideline for a touchdown. A converted two-point pass gave the Devils an 8-7 lead.

It appeared the half would end on that mark, but with time ticking down, Lewiston tried a throwback pass at midfield. Bangor’s Ben Burt sniffed out the play, picked the pass and ran it back for a touchdown and a 15-8 Rams lead at the half.

Adams and Johnson traded touchdowns in the third quarter. Lewiston added another early in the fourth, and tacked on a safety after the Rams took several penalties before snapping the ball out of their own end zone from inside the 10.

The upside for Nicholas? Belanger, Madore and a host of others on the Lewiston team are back for another year — or two.

“These are character-builders, and I’m glad we’re building in the right direction,” Nicholas said.

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