Lobster Bowl: With Eli Soehren and various weapons, the East couldn’t resist passing on the West

Oxford Hills’s Elias Soehren of the East team throws a pass from the pocket during the Kora Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic on Saturday in Lewiston. Soehren, who has committed to play at Colby College next year, threw three TD passes and ran for a score in the East’s 28-23 win over the West. Brewster Burns photo

LEWISTON — Eli Soehren’s pipeline and lifeline, for that matter, extended directly to Eli Bigelow and Caden Crocker.

The East quarterback never got flustered in the pocket, even after the West team mounted a serious comeback in the fourth quarter of the 33rd Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl at packed Don Roux Field on a steamy Saturday afternoon.

But Soehren’s three touchdown pass and one touchdown run held up as the East held on to a 28-23 victory.

Soehren came out throwing in the opening quarter, connecting with Bigelow with a 7-yard touchdown pass 2:04 into the game. The Colby College-bound quarterback found Bigelow open again in the second quarter for an 11-yard TD pass.

“I just trusted the wide receivers,” Soehren, who helped Oxford Hills win its first state championship in the fall, said. “It has been a hell of a week getting to know them — and then I’ve got to trust them. I throw it up to them. They catch it — touchdown. That is all there is.”

Bigelow, who made several big plays for Lewiston last fall and was a Fitzpatrick semifinalist, became a target of the West’s defense after his first-half touchdowns.

“They definitely locked him up, but at the same time, we have other players that can catch a ball and Bigelow was covered by two guys … so I am going to pick the guy that is open, but Bigelow had a hell of a game,” Soehren said.

Bigelow also noticed the added attention by the West’s secondary.

“After we kind of started beating (them), they started sagging off a lot more than they usually were, so it kind of made it harder to find room when we were getting deep,” Bigelow said.

Double-covered by a pair of West defenders, Lewiston’s Eli Bigelow hauls in a pass from Oxford Hills’ Eli Soehren for an East squad touchdown during the first half of Saturday’s Lobster Bowl at Don Roux Field in Lewiston. Bigelow caught two touchdown passes in the first half, both on fourth-down plays. Brewster Burns photo

Bigelow said it was the right move getting the ball to Crocker, who scored a crucial fourth-quarter touchdown on a 41-yared pass from Soehren. Crocker, a graduate of Foxcroft Academy, shook off three tackles with 2:29 left in the game to give the East breathing room and a 28-16 lead.

“He is an incredible kid,” Bigelow said of Crocker. “I got real close to him this weekend. He is a fun kid to be around and he is a dog on the field.”

Bigelow wasn’t the only Class A player who Crocker, a two-time Class D state champion, made an impression on this week.

“Caden is my boy,” Soehren, the Fitzpatrick Trophy winner, said. “I knew from the start that he would play a hell of a game, and he did, and that touchdown was unbelievable.”

Crocker, who will be attending Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire, was not surprised when the West’s defense turned on Bigelow.

“Bigelow is a great player … and they started (crowding Bigelow) and it opened up stuff for me,” Crocker said. “It felt great helping out the team. Getting the win is all we wanted.”

Bigelow caught the ball seven times for 52 yards. He had four catches for 24 yards in the first quarter and collected two more for 27 yards in the second.

Offensive coordinator B.L. Lippert said the East had every intention of going to the air to defeat the West — especially after the West put the kibosh on the East’s rushing game.

“We thought we had some opportunities with the pass game, and to be quite frank, they really stopped the run pretty well,” Lippert said. “The second half, we were kind of trying to run the clock with the lead, and then it came down to it that we rolled out and hit Caden Crocker in the flat on a comeback and he made a great play to kind of seal it. Yeah, they did a good job taking away the run and we had to throw it.”

Lippert was also impressed with Soehren’s persistence in the pocket.

“Eil is an unbelievable quarterback,” Lippert said. “He is a great kid — heading to Colby. Honestly, half the reason I coached in this game was to coach a player like Eli Soehren or Parker Higgins (of Lawrence). It is really fun to come out here and coach a kid that’s smart, but understands the game.

“When the game was on the line, (Soehren) made big plays, including that hard throw to Caden, and he made it.”

East head coach Mark Soehren, Eli’s dad, said the East’s passing game gave his son options in the backfield.

“We looked at the short game — a lot of those were run-pass options so Eli could read whether he wanted to give the ball or pass it,” Soehren said. “It worked out pretty well.”

Soehren completed 7 of his 10 passes to Bigelow, which included the duo connecting on their first six attempts, and overall finished 20 for 31 for 276 yards. Soehren also ran for a 5-yard touchdown in the first half.

“Eli loves being around his teammates, and, you know, he is a really good quarterback,” Mark Soehren said. “It is hard for me to say that as a father. I don’t want to brag. As a coach, I can’t deny that he is a very good quarterback. I am excited to watch him as a fan for the next few years.”