Fans, players battle weather

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BREWER – On a year when the actual football battle … wasn’t … one thing remained the same about the Bangor-Brewer game.

You just never know what you’re going to see when these two teams get together.

This year, fans widely rejected Doyle Field as a pleasant place to spend a Friday night and relive one of the state’s most storied high school rivalries.

The weather didn’t cooperate, and rain, wind and mud turned the middle third of the playing surface into a muddy quagmire.

While 5,000, or 10,000 lively souls or more used to show up – legend has a way of expanding these things – Friday’s turnstile count probably didn’t top 500.

The outcome was expected – 28-0 for Bangor, as the Rams extended Brewer’s losing streak to 18 straight. And except for a nifty 83-yard run by Hampton Clarkson, even the Rams’ victory was kind of, well, ho-hum. Even on the eve of Halloween, the Witches didn’t have any tricks. And they got precious few treats.

But high on the hill, parked next to a main gate beside Brewer Auditorium, a group of Brewer students had a fine time, thank you very much.

“I’d like to thank the Brewer janitorial staff for making this all possible,” senior cross country runner Eric Brown said, standing up in the back of a friend’s Ford F150 pickup, surrounded by all of his closest friends.

Brown was drenched and his friends were drenched – and not because of the sporadic rain.

They were wet on purpose, and sat in the largest portable hot tub in town. Or make that “warm tub.”

“It’s cooled down pretty much, but it’s still warm,” said Brown, Brewer-orange flag flying off the tail of friend Curt Carter’s truck-tub.

Brown explained that after visiting most of the city’s businesses looking to fill ‘er up, he and his friends got desperate. A helpful Brewer custodian gave them what they needed: a hot water tap.

A downhill ride to Doyle Field “in the breakdown lane at about 8 mph,” and the Witches boys cross country team was all set.

Brown said the tub had held 15 bathers at its peak, though some had bailed out. But he said the Ford’s capacity hadn’t been exceeded.

“If you fill the cab up with water, that’s at least three more,” he said with a laugh.

The ingredients for the makeshift tub were pretty simple, but showed some forethought.

Just a couple layers of plastic over the top of a healthy layer of carpet padding – have to have a soft seat, don’tcha know – and you’ve almost got it.

“And you need some rope, and a whole lot of love,” cross country teammate Chris Sighinolfi pitched in.

Down on the field, the Witches and Rams both needed the hot bath Brown and his crew could have provided.

Bangor coach Gabby Price found himself waddling back and forth through a couple inches of sideline mud right off the bat.

“Two hands,” Price yelled at his return team before the opening kickoff. “Two hands. Two hands.”

It was a two-hands kind of night. A football kind of night.

Officials shuttled a clean football in for a muddy one every couple plays. Coaches made sure of that.

And the most foul-tempered Price got during the first quarter was during a timeout on the Rams first drive. The transgression committed?

Someone forgot to run onto the field with the hard piece of plastic players use to clean their muddy cleats.

On the Brewer sideline, things were much the same.

Muddy.

Bangor tailback Hampton Clarkson slipped, slid and pounded his way to 267 yards against the Witches defense.

Each time, it took a couple Brewer players – or more than a couple – to slow the star runner. This, despite a defense that sought to stop him and a coaching staff that often correctly predicted the upcoming play based on a formation it recognized.

“He’s a slippery critter,” Brewer’s Darren Smith said softly to nobody after one such stubborn run, pacing through the sideline mud.

Up at the Auditorium, the hot-tub brigade thinned as the water cooled and the novelty wore off.

Eventually, the boys cross country team – and lone girl’s team ‘tubber Lisa Patterson – changed into long pants and jackets and headed down to watch the game. But at halftime, still having fun with a tub full of Witches, Brown explained the point of the whole thing.

“It’s a good team camaraderie thing, but it’s also to support Brewer sports,” Brown said. As an added benefit, the truck turned the team into stars. People walked by, looked, and said hello.

“They all wish they were in here,” Brown said of the prevalent reaction.

Later, on the field, a second straight winless season came to a close. The teams shook hands. Then the empty hot tub drove away. The season, for one team, came to a close. For the other, at least another muddy week remained.