OLD TOWN – The Brewer football team knows it can look to its defense to win games.

The Witches had some trouble defending Old Town’s passing game in Friday night’s game at Victory Field, but giving up a few midrange passes was about all the problems Brewer had against the Indians.

Brewer limited Old Town to 85 total yards of offense while racking up 350 yards to roll to a 40-6 win.

The Witches jump to 6-1, while the Indians fall to 0-7.

Brewer may have the better record this year, and Old Town may be struggling, but the Witches weren’t looking past this game to next week’s matchup against Belfast.

“This game wasn’t a game like that,” said starting linebacker Ryan Hahl. “This game was a rivalry for us. We knew they were going to come out hard. We went into this game thinking we needed to play them tough because they were going to play us tough.”

With memories of last year’s one-point loss to the Indians still fresh, the Witches were dominant from the first drive of the game. Brewer’s defense scored the first touchdown of the game on Old Town’s second possession when defensive end Joe Chase fell on a fumble in the end zone.

Brewer built a 27-6 lead by halftime thanks to a 4-yard TD run by Josh Caldwell (61 yards on 14 carries), a 4-yard scamper by Seth Emerson (11 carries, 57 yards) and a 14-yard run by Chris Cote, who finished with a game-high 158 yards on 11 tries and two touchdowns.

“They were putting pressure on us at the beginning but our blocking improving throughout the game and we just decided to run over them instead of running around them,” Cote said.

The drive on which Cote scored his first TD was started with an Old Town fumble recovered by Brewer at the Old Town 14-yard line.

The Witches had the top-ranked defense in last week’s LTC standings and it showed Friday. Old Town wasn’t able to get much of a running game going and finished with negative yardage. Chase’s touchdown was Brewer’s sixth defensive score this year.

“They’re a better team … and they create a lot of things with their defense,” Old Town coach Ian Braun said. “They’ve done that all year. They set themselves up with good field position, they hustle, they play hard.”

Cote scored in the third quarter when he reeled off an 83-yard run off a counter play.

“Chris really made that counter work,” said Brewer coach Josh Emmett. “He hit a gear I didn’t know he had. It was a beautiful run.”

Old Town quarterback Jeremy Stormann completed five of his 14 pass attempts for 76 yards. His 17-yard pass to Derek Mishou – a drive initially set up by Mishou’s 80-yard kickoff return – was the Indians’ only score of the game.

Mishou left the game after the first half with a foot injury and did not return.

Stormann tried to lead Old Town on a second scoring drive as he completed passes to Adam Sokoloski, Roger Cole and Brandon Eastman to get to Brewer’s 8-yard line, but the Indians missed a field-goal attempt.

“We had to contain [Stormann] and at times we didn’t do that very well,” Emmett said. “They blocked us very well. We weren’t consistent and he made us pay.”

WITCHES 40, INDIANS 6

Brewer (6-1) 7 20 7 6?40

Old Town (0-7) 0 6 0 0?6

B?Chase fumble recovery in end zone (Sutherland kick)

B?Caldwell 4 run (Caldwell rush)

B?Emerson 7 run (rush failed)

B?Cote 14 run (pass failed)

OT?Mishou 17 pass from Stormann (rush failed)

B?Cote 83 run (Patterson kick)

B?Lam 10 pass from Richter (rush failed)

Brewer Old Town

First downs 15 2

Rushing att.-yards 51-332 20-(minus 1)

Passing comp.-att. 2-3 5-14

Passing yards 18 85

Total yards 350 84

Punts-avg. 1-27 6-32.3

Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-2

Intercepted by 0 0

Penalties-yards 6-45 5-55

Rushing

Brewer: Cote 11-158, Caldwell 14-61, Emerson 11-57, Rancourt 4-23, Trask 5-14, Roberts 1-7, Collins 1-6, Richter 1-4, Fox 3-2; Old Town: Cole 9-7, Sokoloski 3-3, Mishou 1-0, Stormann 7-(minus 11)

Passing

Brewer: Collins 1-2-0-8, Richter 1-1-0-10; Old Town: Stormann 5-14-0-76, Cole 1-1-0-9

Receiving

Brewer: Lam 1-10, Surette 1-8; Old Town: Eastman 1-14, Cole 1-16, Sokoloski 2-29, Mishou 1-17, Stormann 1-9

A?400 (est.)