BREWER – It’s easy enough to look back to Jared Maroon’s 28-yard touchdown run as the big turning point in Saturday’s PTC Class B championship game against Brewer.

Maroon’s controversial fourth-quarter run did give Winslow a 14-0 lead, and the Black Raiders would eventually close out the game by that score for the regional title and a spot in next Saturday’s Class B state championship game.

But the Witches’ six fumbles, including two in the second half in Winslow territory, were what ultimately did in Brewer (9-2), ending what was an otherwise stellar season as the program played in its first title game since 1970.

Sophomore Justin Lindie rushed for 107 yards to lead the Raiders (9-2) to their first berth in a state title game since 2001. Winslow, which also beat Brewer during the regular season, will face Western Maine winner Mountain Valley of Rumford next Saturday at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium.

“[Brewer is] a hard-playing team, and we knew we would have to come into this game fighting hard,” Lindie said. “Our offense wasn’t really running well today and our defense stepped it up. It was a hard day.”

The drive during which Maroon scored the game-breaking touchdown started out with what hurt the Witches all game – Winslow’s Bryon Fogg recovered a Brewer fumble at the Raider 31-yard line.

Lindie then reeled off a 32-yard run to get into Brewer territory and, two plays later, the Raiders were at the Brewer 28. Maroon got the ball on third-and-three and headed for the left sideline. After about a 4-yard gain Maroon appeared to go down and an official signaled that the play was over.

But no whistle was blown, so Maroon took off for the left sideline and into the end zone for a 14-0 lead with 9:59 left in the game.

Maroon said he was hit by the Brewer defense and was “curled over” one of the Witches, but his knee never hit the ground. The defense let go of Maroon and he took off because the whistle hadn’t blown.

“I looked around and I just started running,” he said. “I was amazed that the whistle hadn’t blown, and it was a great call by the ref to not blow the whistle. I just kept running. It was just a shock for me that it even happened.”

Brewer coach Ed Ortego came out to argue the fact that an official signaled that the play was over but no whistle was blown. The officials huddled and decided to allow the ruling on the field to stand.

“I think it was [the game-breaking play],” Ortego said. “That put us two touchdowns back. In this kind of game, one touchdown makes the difference.”

Brewer rallied to run off a 14-play, six-minute drive to get to the Winslow 3 – where the Witches again fumbled. This time, Eric Lopez recovered the ball at the 2. A five-yard penalty against Brewer and two first downs helped the Raiders run the game out.

“I was starting to get worried because they were driving,” Lopez said. “But once we got that fumble I was confident that we could come over the top on them.”

Brewer played solid defense, holding the Winslow offense to just one touchdown. The Witches had a terrific defensive stand late in the first quarter, keeping the Raiders from scoring after a first down at the Brewer 11. Senior linebacker Chad Szylvian batted away sophomore quarterback Steven Siviski’s 3-yard pass attempt on fourth down.

The Witches began their drive but quarterback Ricky Porter fumbled the ball at the 10-yard line. Winslow linebacker Brandon Bellows picked up the loose ball and ran into the end zone to give the Raiders a 6-0 lead a little more than a minute into the second quarter.

Two plays after the kickoff Brewer fumbled again. This time Maroon recovered it.

“You can’t turn the ball over on this team,” Ortego said. “… They certainly held on to the ball better than us.”

Lindie said he thought the cold weather and somewhat slippery conditions did make the ball tough to hang on to.

Later in the quarter the Witches got the ball back after Drew Francis intercepted Siviski. Brewer got down to the Winslow 29 but Lopez nearly picked off a Porter fourth-down pass with 47 seconds left.

Porter led Brewer’s option offense with 79 yards on 16 carries, followed by Zach Wilson’s 37 yards and Kevin McAvoy’s 32. Those three were the main weapons in a ground game that rushed for about 3,000 yards this season.

“We knew they had a lot of talented backs back there so we focused on containing them,” Lopez said. “They got some good plays around the ends but I think we did well keeping them from scoring.”

BLACK RAIDERS 14, WITCHES 0

Winslow (9-2) 0 7 0 7 – 14

Brewer (9-2) 0 0 0 0 – 0

W – Bellows 10 fumble return (Poulin kick)

W – Maroon 28 run (Poulin kick)

Winslow Brewer

First downs 13 13

Rushing att.-yards 38-219 44-172

Passing comp.-att. 3-7 1-9

Passing yards 15 16

Total yards 234 186

Punts-avg. 2-30.5 1-55

Fumbles-lost 2-0 6-6

Intercepted by 0 1

Penalties-yards 5-25 4-20

Rushing

Winslow: J. Lindie 20-107, Maroon 2-37, Siviski 8-29, R. Lindie 8-46; Brewer: Porter 16-79, Wilson 9-37, McAvoy 9-32, Littlefield 7-22, Caldwell 3-2

Passing

Winslow: Siviski 3-7-1-15; Brewer: Porter 1-8-1-16, McAvoy 0-1-0-0

Receiving

Winslow: Lopez 1-10, Maroon 1-3, J. Lindie 1-2; Brewer: McAvoy 1-16

A-1,000 (est.)