AUBURN — A slow start was only a minor hinderance for Lewiston in the Battle of the Bridge rivalry football game against Edward Little on Friday.

Held scoreless in the first quarter, the Blue Devils broke out with three touchdowns in the second en route to a 41-0 victory over the Red Eddies.

“That’s not how we wanted to start at all, but we started to put some things together in the second quarter, and, you know, we got on track,” Lewiston coach Jason Versey said.

The Blue Devils improve to 5-3 and will be the second seed in the Class A North playoffs. They’ll host either Windham or Bangor next week.

Jayden Sands was the spark plug for Lewiston on Friday with 140 yards rushing on seven attempts.

“I was just thinking, just like before the game, you know, I just wanted to run and run that ball in,” Sands said. “I was thinking about, I just need to, you know, help my team. I know I have fast legs, so I just use that to my advantage.

“… It was great win, a lot of memories, you know, with the seniors.”

On the second play of the second quarter, Sands put Lewiston on the board with a 19-yard run and Michael Caron added the extra point for a 7-0 lead with 11:25 remaining in the half.

The touchdown was set up by a 22-yard pass to Sands from quarterback Jeffrey Randall.

“I was telling coach, ‘Give me the ball,’ you know what I’m saying?” Sands said. “I got that, and it was a great grab, great win.”

The scored remained 7-0 until the final minute of the second quarter when Lewiston’s Damonte Spearman took a screen pass 53 yards to the house for a 13-0 lead with 35.9 second to go.

On the Red Eddies’ next offensive play, quarterback TJ Kramarz threw an interception to Lewiston linebacker Dylan Whitlow, which set up a 29-yard TD run by Randall with seven seconds remaining. Ryker Paradis bulldozed his way in for the 2-point conversion for 21-0 lead.

Randall finished the game with eight carriers for 46 yards and two touchdowns, and he completed 6 of 10 passes for 144 yards and three scores.

Early in the third quarter, Kramarz appeared to score on a 65-yard run, but it was called back by an illegal block in the back penalty. Kramarz still picked up 35 yards on the play for Red Eddies’ longest play of the game.

Lewiston eventually forced a turnover on downs, then Sands scampered for 39 yards to Edward Little’s 25-yard line.

“He’s a special kid, special player,” Versey said of Sands. “He’s electric, he’s one of those high-energy, happy warriors, you know? So I am very happy for him.”

Two plays later, Randall found Lonnie Thomas in the end zone for a 25-yard scoring strike midway through the third quarter, pushing Lewiston’s lead to 27-0.

Thomas intercepted a pass later in the third quarter, and after an Edward Little face mask penalty, the ball ended up at the Red Eddies 7-yard line.

Edward Little stopped Sands at the 1-yard line, but Randall scored on a QB sneak with 3:04 left in the period. Joe Dube rambled in for the 2-point conversion to make it 35-0.

The Blue Devils’ final touchdown was set up by a 31-yard pass from Randall to Deion Jackson that put the ball at the Edward Little 13.

“Deion Jackson, great catch,” Randall said. “You know, wasn’t a great ball, but Deion read it, he made an adjustment, he caught it, came down with it, and another 30-yard catch.”

Spearman brought in his second touchdown catch on the next play to extend Lewiston’s lead to 41-0 with 9:25 remaining. Spearman finished the game with three receptions for 71 yards.

“He’s Mr. consistent. He’s someone we can always count on,” Versey said of Spearman.

Edward Little finishes the season 1-8. The Blue Devils have won five straight in the rivalry.