BREWER – The Belfast football team opened the second quarter of Friday night’s PTC Class B quarterfinal with the ball on the Lions’ own 1-yard line after a series of first-quarter drives that hadn’t gone anywhere.

A pretty unimpressive start.

But the No. 3 Lions turned that into one of the finest efforts of their season – a 22-play, 99-yard, clock-eating second-quarter drive that sparked the defending Eastern Maine champions to a victory over the No. 2 Brewer Witches at Doyle Field.

Josh Aldus ran for 126 yards, including 39 yards and the drive-capping touchdown, as Belfast rolled to a 32-0 win and a berth in the Class B final next week.

The Lions avenged one of their two regular-season losses (Belfast lost to Brewer 14-12) and will face the winner of Saturday’s other semifinal between No. 4 Oak Hill and No. 1 Winslow.

Aldus had two touchdowns among his 28 carries as the Lions went hard on the ground. That was evident in the second-quarter drive.

Belfast started out at its own 1-yard line and simply pounded the ball up the middle, at times using Aldus, quarterback Nick Arthers, and fullback Paul Herman. The Lions chipped away and picked up seven of their eight first-half first downs.

“Down at the one, I was just telling them, this could be the drive of a lifetime, right here,” said quarterback Nick Arthers, who sat out the regular-season meeting with a shoulder injury.

“The linemen, the backs, they put forth their best effort,” he added. “That was probably the most emotional time I’ve had [this year].”

Belfast appeared to have stalled at the Brewer 36, but on third-and-8 Arthers threw a 15-yard pass to Herman, who was wide open in the flat. The pass play appeared to catch the Witches a bit by surprise.

“They’re high school kids, they were having a hard time stopping the run, they didn’t read their keys, they got tricked,” Brewer coach Ed Ortego said. “That’s not the way we like to play. … I felt more than anything if we had tackled them just a tiny bit better we could have stopped them on that drive.”

Aldus had an 11-yard run on third-and-9 at the Brewer 20, and that sparked the Lions further.

“[Center] Chris Hubbard pulled, took out the trap man, left open a big, big hole. I knew where the first down was and that’s what I aimed for,” said Aldus, who also credited linemen Scott Hopkins, Jason Wilkie, Nick Thomann, Ronnie Morse, Matt Cole and Josh Gallant.

Arthers kept it for a 1-yard gain on the next play, and a Brewer penalty put the ball at the 4-yard line on second down. Aldus took it four yards on the following play and finished the drive with a 1-yard rush.

Arthers threw a pass to Garren Horne for the 2-point conversion.

The Witches, who had just 21 seconds left to do something before halftime, appeared to have some momentum as Dan Fox completed two passes to Drew Francis, getting Brewer to the Belfast 22 with four seconds left. But Fox’s third attempt was tipped by Belfast’s Tim Morley as time expired.

“They run a lot of motion off their formations, and we just keyed on where the motion was going,” said Arthers, a defensive back. “The linemen, everybody stepped up and we stopped them.”

The Lions ran all over the Witches in the second half.

Aldus scored his second touchdown on Belfast’s first drive of the third quarter. The Witches had to punt on their first drive, but punter Kevin McAvoy got a snap over his head. He picked it up and ran, but not enough for a first down, instead giving Belfast the ball at the Brewer 38. That led to Arthers’ run around to the left for a 2-yard TD.

The Lions added two more scores in the fourth quarter. Arthers threw a 23-yard pass to Matt Cole and Herman (63 yards on nine carries) scored on a 4-yard run.

The Witches again looked as if they would score when Ricky Porter reeled off a 53-yard run to get Brewer to the Belfast 14, but the Lions sacked quarterback Court Rancourt on second down and Morley picked off a Rancourt pass.

Belfast’s Andy Whalen had a late interception to seal it. Brewer’s Chris Fox picked off an Arthers’ pass in the first quarter.

The Witches were penalized 11 times for 78 yards.

LIONS 32, WITCHES 0

Belfast (7-2) 0 8 12 12 ? 32

Brewer (7-2) 0 0 0 0 ? 0

Bel ? Aldus 1 run (Horne pass from Arthers)

Bel ? Aldus 1 run (pass failed)

Bel ? Arthers 2 run (rush failed)

Bel ? Cole 23 pass from Arthers (kick blocked)

Bel ? Herman 4 run (rush failed)

Belfast Brewer

First downs 20 6

Rushing att.-yards 60-265 23-109

Passing comp.-att. 2-3 6-17

Passing yards 38 59

Total yards 303 168

Punts-avg. 0 3-30.6

Fumbles-lost 2-0 2-0

Intercepted by 3 1

Penalties-yards 5-25 11-78

Rushing

Belfast: Aldus 28-126, Herman 9-63, Arthers 17-62, Potvin 3-7, Horne 2-5, Luce 1-2; Brewer: Rancourt 7-11, D. Fox 3-(minus-5), Noyes 4-35, Frost 3-(minus-2), Porter 2-57, C. Fox 4-13

Passing

Belfast: Arthers 2-3-1-38; Brewer: D. Fox 4-12-1-50, Rancourt 2-5-2-9

Receiving

Belfast: Cole 1-23, Herman 1-15; Brewer: Francis 2-34, Frost 3-23, Porter 1-2

A?1,000 (est.)