Brewer shows off offensive perfection, rolls over Gardiner

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BREWER – The sense of urgency inherent in playoff football brought out the best in the Brewer Witches on Friday night.

With a first half of offensive execution bordering on perfection, third-ranked Brewer rolled past No. 6 Gardiner 42-13 in a Pine Tree Conference Class B quarterfinal at Doyle Field.

The Witches averaged 7.96 yards per snap of the football while building a 28-6 lead over the opening two periods – with no penalties, no turnovers and no punts required.

Gardiner simply had no defensive answer.

“The offense was rolling,” said Brewer coach Ed Ortego, whose Witches will face the winner of Saturday night’s Hampden-Leavitt of Turner Center game in a semifinal next weekend. “Since the Winslow game [a 21-0 loss on Oct. 14] there’s been a concerted effort by the team and the staff to eliminate the things that were hurting us, and all those things are really coming around nicely, giving the kids a lot of confidence.”

The Witches had 207 total yards at halftime, and finished the game with 370 yards, including 293 on the ground. Tailback Zach Wilson led that attack with 105 yards and two touchdowns on just nine carries, while quarterback-wingback Ricky Porter had 71 rushing yards and 42 receiving yards and fullback Ben Caldwell rushed for 54 yards and two TDs.

Brewer also got a boost from junior Ricky Adams, who played much of the night at quarterback and rushed for 29 yards while completing 4 of 5 passes for 53 yards and two touchdowns.

“I’ve been working on my mechanics a lot lately because I’ve been throwing some ducks,” said Adams, “but I just stopped thinking and threw the ball.”

“It makes it a lot harder on the defense,” added Wilson of Adams’ presence, “because instead of having Ricky at quarterback, we have Deuce [Adams] who can run the whole offense, and we have Caldwell at fullback and me and Ricky on the wings and you just don’t know where it’s going.”

Brewer spotted Gardiner a 6-0 lead, as the Tigers took the opening kickoff and drove 74 yards, with Kerry Ramsay scoring on a 5-yard run with 6:55 left in the opening quarter.

But Gardiner’s offense managed just 34 yards the rest of the half, an effort hindered by two turnovers.

“We just stepped it up,” said Porter, a safety on defense. “We were plugging the holes and our defense was great after that first drive. We played with confidence.”

Brewer answered Gardiner’s first score with a 61-yard march capped off by a 5-yard scoring run by Zach Wilson, and Dan Juilli’s extra-point kick gave the Witches the lead for good.

A 78-yard kickoff return by Ramsay put Gardiner back in business, but after reaching the Brewer 6 the Witches’ defense stiffened. When Kyle Stilphen lofted a fourth-and-goal pass into traffic in the end zone, Brewer’s Phil Turmelle made the interception.

The Witches then drove 80 yards in nine plays for the momentum-turning score, a 5-yard run by Caldwell three minutes into the second quarter.

Caldwell added a 4-yard scoring run on Brewer’s next possession, and after Anthony Ngo recovered a Ramsay fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Adams hit tight end Ryan Babin with an 11-yard scoring strike with 1:01 left before intermission.

And a game that was expected to be close – Brewer had to rally for a 22-16 regular-season win at Gardiner – was suddenly a blowout.

“They just went out and did what they were coached to do, and that was good enough,” said Ortego. “And after a while they started playing with confidence and playing a lot harder.”

Wilson scored from 47 yards out on Brewer’s first possession of the second half, and Adams followed with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Porter to make it 42-6 with still 6:16 left in the third quarter.

Gardiner’s final touchdown came on a 38-yard pass from Stilphen to Sam Kallman with 6:34 left in the game.

“We started off slow, but we didn’t have any penalties and turnovers, and we showed what we could do when we don’t do that,” said Wilson. “The line was blocking great, and we just played awesome.”

WITCHES 42, TIGERS 13

Gardiner (4-5) 6 0 0 7 – 13

Brewer (7-2) 7 21 14 0 – 42

G-Ramsay 5 run (kick failed)

B-Z. Wilson 5 run (Juilli kick)

B-Caldwell 5 run (kick blocked)

B-Caldwell 4 run (Caldwell rush)

B-Babin 11 pass from Adams (Juilli kick)

B-Z. Wilson 47 run (kick blocked)

B-Porter 27 pass from Adams (Roberts pass from Adams)

G-Kallman 38 pass from Stilphen (Stilphen kick)

Gardiner Brewer

First downs 9 23

Rushing att.-yards 34-116 48-293

Passing comp.-att. 2-8 5-6

Passing yards 66 77

Total yards 182 370

Punts-avg. 3-22.0 2-20.5

Fumbles-lost 3-1 1-1

Intercepted by 0 1

Penalties-yards 2-21 4-19

Rushing

Gardiner: Ramsay 16-52, Richard 9-32, Brown 5-18, Stilphen 2-9, Jamison 2-5; Brewer: Z. Wilson 9-105, Porter 5-71, Caldwell 10-54, Adams 11-29, Bush 5-15, Oldmixon 6-14, Ngo 1-3, Smith 1-2

Passing

Gardiner: Stilphen 2-8-1-66; Brewer: Adams 4-5-0-53, Porter 1-1-0-24

Receiving

Gardiner: Kallman 1-38, Lavallee 1-28; Brewer: Porter 3-42, Noddin 1-24, Babin 1-11

A-900 (est.)