BREWER – So, let’s try to get this straight.

Brewer’s primary quarterback came into this week’s practices banged up and rusty on offense after missing some action, so he didn’t play defense and was rusty on offense. The backup QB had hardly any reps in practice because the starter needed the work, and they were playing a bigger team.

So on Friday, the starting quarterback runs for 105 yards and throws for another 24; the backup runs for 74 and throws for 71; and Brewer’s interior lines dominated the line of scrimmage en route to a convincing 40-0 victory over Morse of Bath on a cool night at Doyle Field in the mutual opener.

Just the way they drew it up.

“Lots of mistakes and we started real slow, but boy, did we finish up strong,” said Brewer coach Ed Ortego. “Our whole focus was to play our technique all game, even when fatigue set in. We knew they outweighed us and were a little stronger, but our guys kept their composure and started winning the leverage battle.”

The Witches overcame a stagnant start in the first quarter, seized the momentum in the second, and never really looked back as their ground game and opportunistic passing created more leaks than the Shipbuilders could plug up.

“Our line was wearing their line down so much,” said quarterback Ricky Porter, who scored on runs of four and 36 yards en route to a game-high 105 despite having broken his pinkie finger and pinched a nerve in his elbow in the preseason. “You could tell the difference in their speed and effort in the second half.”

Two-way starter Jamie Ecker was a key figure in that trench warfare as a tackle and outside linebacker. He and tackle Ralph Cammack, guards Anthony Castiglia and Matt Cormier, and center Zach Sherry paved the way for 292 rushing yards and gave up no sacks. Defensively, the Witches notched five sacks, forced one fumble, intercepted a pass, and limited Morse to 1.6 yards per carry.

“We wanted to use our speed against their size to try and get in the backfield and disrupt everything,” said Ecker. “We just had to worry about containing the end and not letting their quarterback roll out.”

It was Ecker and his defensive mates who lobbied Ortego to turn them loose on the Morse backfield via stunts and blitzes.

“We have some quickness, so we figured we could get after them, which they told me, so I eventually sent them on just about every play,” Ortego said.

The result was four sacks and a net total of 57 yards for Morse in the second half. Morse never penetrated deeper than Brewer’s 41-yard line.

Senior tailback Zach Wilson broke the scoreless tie with a two-yard TD run with 7:51 left in the first half. Brewer made it 13-0 on Porter’s four-yard jaunt on a sweep to the right with 1:09 left in the half.

Porter’s 36-yard TD run off a right sweep option run midway through the third broke the game open and Wilson’s one-yard TD run up the middle five minutes later all but iced it.

Backup quarterback Ricky Adams took over in the fourth quarter and shook off the jitters with a 25-yard scoring pass to Brad Brown on the to cap a nine-play drive that opened the final quarter and a 69-yard TD run in which he broke three tackles with 4:09 left in the game.

WITCHES 40, SHIPBUILDERS 0

Morse (0-1) 0 0 0 0 – 0

Brewer (1-0) 0 13 14 13 – 40

B-Wilson 2 run (kick failed)

B-Porter 4 run (Brown kick)

B-Porter 36 run (Brown kick)

B-Wilson 1 run (Juilli kick)

B-Brown 25 pass from Adams (Juilli kick)

B-Adams 69 run (kick failed)

Morse Brewer

First downs 5 13

Rushing att.-yards 36-58 42-292

Passing comp.-att. 4-12 4-7

Passing yards 44 71

Total yards 102 363

Punts-avg. 6-29.8 2-31.5

Fumbles-lost 2-0 5-1

Intercepted by 0 1

Penalties-yards 12-60 14-95

Rushing

Morse: Grate 17-40, Wallace 9-22, Suggs 3-10, Sigurdson 7-(-14); Brewer: Porter 12-105, Adams 5-74, Caldwell 9-64, Wilson 11-41, Ngo 2-2, Brown 2-2, Bush 1-4

Passing

Morse: Sigurdson 3-11-1-34, Dunning 1-1-0-10; Brewer: Adams 3-3-0-47, Porter 1-4-0-24

Receiving

Morse: Hook 1-16, Loveitt 1-11, Sigurdson 1-10, Suggs 1-7; Brewer: Brown 1-25, Caldwell 1-24, Wilson 1-15, Babin 1-7

A-500 (est.)