BREWER – One week after flying high with a win over Belfast, the Brewer football team came back down to earth.

For a half, anyway.

The Witches struggled a bit early against Lake Region Friday night, but Zack Wilson led the Witches with three third-quarter touchdown runs for a 44-0 victory over the Lakers of Naples in front of a large Homecoming crowd at Doyle Field.

It was the third shutout of the season for the Witches, who are now 6-0. Lake Region fell to 1-5.

Brewer had a 14-0 lead at halftime, but that didn’t come easily as the Witches struggled with turnovers and penalties.

“We just got a little out of sorts,” Brewer coach Ed Ortego said. “We struggled a little bit. I guess this is the first time I could say we looked flat.”

And Zack Wilson, one of Brewer’s leading rushers this year, had just 15 yards on four carries.

But that all changed in the second half.

Brewer’s third play of the third quarter was a counter that Wilson took 48 yards for a touchdown.

Once the Witches got the ball back after the Lakers failed to get past their own 34-yard line, Wilson carried the ball on third-and-27 and again got loose for a 45-yard score.

Brewer’s defense then stopped Lake Region at the Witches’ 27. Ricky Porter first ran for 10 yards, then gave the ball to Wilson for a 63-yard run and another touchdown.

“We got our counter game working,” senior captain Chad Szylvian said.

All told, Wilson had 157 yards on four carries in the second half and finished with four touchdowns and 172 yards on eight attempts. He scored in the first quarter after recovering a Brewer fumble.

“I don’t think we were hanging on to the ball very well,” Wilson said. “Our game is to play hard and drive it down their throats and we weren’t doing that very well in the first half. We picked it up in the second half and it went well.”

Brewer had 191 yards on the ground in the first half. But take away Porter’s 75-yard touchdown run, which Jamie Ecker set up when he recovered a fumble at the Brewer 25, and things weren’t working as well offensively.

“I’m on the line and I’ll say we weren’t blocking well,” said Szylvian, who is an offensive tackle. “But pretty much we went back to basics and said, hey, let’s man up and play.”

The Witches also had two passes picked off and fumbled several times. Could it have been a letdown from last Friday’s 38-12 win over the always-tough Belfast Lions?

“I think we might have [been] a little off in the beginning, but that’s because we were all so jacked up for this, for Homecoming, that we lost sight of the game,” Wilson said. “We came back to reality in the second half.”

Lake Region quarterback Nick Mullins had some success in the air, throwing nine passes and completing four for 103 yards. He hit three in a row during the Lakers’ third-quarter drive to get them down to the Brewer 27.

Lake Region rushed for 69 yards in the first half but managed only 28 in the second. Frank Crosen led the Lakers with 39 yards on 10 carries.

Lake Region coach Chuck Hamaty was pleased with the Lakers’ first-half effort.

“We would have an occasional breakdown and they would take advantage of that, but we played great defense in the first half,” Hamaty said. “If we don’t bumble the ball all over the place, maybe it’s a different story. But we’ve played very lackluster football most of the season and we played inspired football tonight.”

Brewer sophomore lineman Matt Wilson left the field on a stretcher after taking a hit in the second quarter. He was taken to the hospital as a precaution and was doing fine, Brewer athletic director Dennis Kiah said after the game.

WITCHES 44, LAKERS 0

Lake Region (1-5) 0 0 0 0 – 0

Brewer (6-0) 7 7 22 8 – 44

B – Wilson 7 run (McAvoy kick)

B – Porter 75 run (McAvoy kick)

B – Wilson 48 run (Porter rush)

B – Wilson 45 run (Wilson rush)

B – Wilson 63 run (rush failed)

B – Adams 8 run (Wilson rush)

Lake Region Brewer

First downs 7 11

Rushing att.-yards 39-97 40-439

Passing comp.-att. 4-11 1-7

Passing yards 103 11

Total yards 200 450

Punts-avg. 5-28.4 0-0

Fumbles-lost 4-2 3-1

Intercepted by 2 1

Penalties-yards 8-75 6-55

Rushing

Lake Region: Crosen 10-39, Jauss 7-31, O’Connor 8-18, Mullins 4-12, Allen 7-2, Daley 2-1, Robinson 1-(minus 6); Brewer: Wilson 8-172, Porter 6-113, McAvoy 3-54, Littlefield 11-43, Peasley 4-35, Caldwell 3-1, Adams 2-13, Gray 1-3, Ngo 1-6, Kingsbury 1 -(minus 1)

Passing

Lake Region: Mullins 4-9-1-103, Robinson 0-2-0-0; Brewer: McAvoy 1-2-0-11, Porter 0-3-1-0, Peasley 0-2-1-0

Receiving

Lake Region: Gregory 2-78, Rembert 2-25; Brewer: Porter 1-11

A-1,200 (est.)