BREWER – Yes, Scarborough is a football program only three years old. Yes, the unbeaten Brewer Witches were missing two key starters. And yes, this is the first official season of Class B ball for the Red Storm.

No, none of that would make any difference on a slightly drizzly Saturday afternoon at Doyle Field as the Storm struck the Witches often and hard in a dizzying second quarter en route to a convincing 36-8 victory.

Junior tailback Nial Demena, like the rest of Scarborough’s ground attack, was unstoppable as he bashed his way to 155 yards, two touchdowns and a PAT rush on 16 carries.

The 4-0 Storm amassed a whopping 293 yards on 46 carries behind a solid surge from big linemen Sean Murray, Mitch Randall, Jeff Fasulo, Matt Crandall, and the tackle rotation of Devin Butts and Steven Cyr.

“All year, they’ve been blocking great for all our backs,” said the 6-foot, 205-pound Demena, who admitted he’d be playing soccer right now if there was no football team. “I guess we’re making up for some lost time. We’ve had a lot of kids who are dying to play.”

Scarborough struck first late in the first quarter on Demena’s 35-yard touchdown run, in which he went through the middle, broke six tackles, and carried three would-be tacklers with him for eight yards. Then the Storm drains burst in the second as points and yardage rained down on Brewer’s defense.

Scarborough made it 14-0 58 seconds into the second as Mike Slovak’s 3-yard TD run capped a four-play, 55-yard drive keyed by a 41-yard option run by quarterback Rob Paul (5-for-12, 52 yards). Seven minutes later, Demena ended a 12-play, 40-yard drive with a one-yard TD run off right tackle.

Brewer finally responded as junior back Seth Emerson bulled through the middle, zipped to the right and sprinted 65 yards for a touchdown with 3:20 left in the half. The Storm got the points back, however, as Slovak caught a pass over the middle and raced 20 yards for a score just a minute later. Another two-point conversion rush made it 30-8.

Scarborough delivered the final blow with a 14-play, seven-minute, second half-starting drive covering 58 yards and ending with a two-yard TD pass from Paul to Matt Pemberton.

“They were pretty powerful on the ground. We had a real hard time with them,” said coach Josh Emmett, whose Witches are 3-1.

So forget all that talk about Scarborough being a paper tiger.

“We don’t want to send a message to anybody but ourselves,” said coach Jack Flynn, who built South Portland into a power before coming out of retirement to coach Scarborough. “This was a very, very good game for us because we felt Brewer was a tough team coming in and our kids have never traveled this far. We were worried how they’d react and they really reacted very well.”

The Witches were led by Emerson, who finished with 107 of Brewer’s 193 rushing yards – a solid effort considering Josh Caldwell, one-half of Brewer’s ground attack was suspended for the game, and special teams leader Jeff Madden was injured.

“I don’t think their absence was what made the difference,” Emmett said. “We just didn’t execute well and lost some confidence, which we now have to get back.”

RED STORM 36, WITCHES 8

Scarborough (4-0) 6 24 6 0?36

Brewer (3-1) 0 8 0 0? 8

S ? Demena 35 run (kick failed)

S ? Slovak 3 run (Paul pass to Pemberton)

S ? Demena 1 run (Paul rush)

B ? Emerson 65 run (Collins pass to Cote)

S ? Slovak 20 pass from Paul (Demena rush)

S ? Pemberton 2 pass from Paul (McNaughton rush)

Scarborough Brewer

First downs 17 8

Rushing att.-yards 46-293 33-193

Passing comp.-att. 5-14 3-10

Passing yards 52 39

Total yards 345 232

Punts-avg. 2-41.0 4-34.5

Fumbles-lost 2-0 5-3

Intercepted by 0 1

Penalties-yards 4-20 5-30

Rushing

Scarborough: Demena 16-155, Paul 4-43, Valverde 9-35, Slovak 4-34, S. Theriault 2-12, Mi. Ellison 2-6, Mulliner 2-5, Kingsbury 1-2, Ma. Ellison 6-1; Brewer: Emerson 8-107, Roberts 3-25, Collins 6-24, Trask 5-17, Cote 8-8, Richter 1-5, Hatch 1-5, Noyes 1-2

Passing

Scarborough: Paul 5-12-1-52, McNaughton 0-1-0-0, Crandall 0-1-0-0; Brewer: Collins 3-8-0-39, Richter 0-2-0-0

Receiving

Scarborough: McNaughton 2-26, Slovak 1-20, Demena 1-4, Pemberton 1-2; Brewer: Sutherland 2-30, Fox 1-9

A? 500 (est.)