ORONO – As the Old Town Indians spent all but one play of the fourth quarter in his team’s territory, and as what had been a 12-0 lead slowly melted away on a humid night, Ben Briggs thought about the way Orono football has been.

And he thought about the way he wants it to be.

“They got us back on our heels for awhile, but then we just realized that we’ve been losing like this for three years now, and we know how not to lose, and what not to do to be like that,” said Briggs, sharing the bit of reverse psychology that helped him and his Riots hold on for a 12-9 win.

“We just did the opposite of what we normally used to do, I guess,” Briggs said.

They sure did.

The Riots, who hadn’t beaten Old Town in four meetings – two exhibitions and two regular season games – made big plays down the stretch in spoiling the Indians’ comeback bid.

Old Town backed the Riots inside their own 20 late in the quarter, but Orono took an intentional safety, kicked the ball back to the Indians with 2 minutes to play, then buckled down after allowing their rivals to advance all the way to the O-21.

Senior linebacker Zack Pike capped the win by chasing down and sacking OT quarterback Jeremy Stormann with 59 seconds to play.

Orono scored the game’s first two touchdowns on a pair of big plays from Briggs and newcomer Brandon Silk.

Briggs started his senior year in style, scooting 31 yards around right end, picking up a couple of big blocks from pulling guards Pike and Paul Gillett, and scoring a TD on his third carry of the year. The conversion kick failed, but the Riots led 6-0 with 6:56 to play in the first.

“It was what I like to see,” said Briggs, who finished with 115 yards on 18 carries. “Just openness.”

Silk, a junior transfer from Caribou who was making his high school football debut, scored a TD of his own – the first time he touched the ball in a game.

Silk gathered in a punt and sprinted 60 yards into the end zone to make it 12-0 with 6:34 to go in the second.

Just because Silk hadn’t played football, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t aware of the Orono-Old Town rivalry.

“My dad played for Old Town, and I can’t let him have bragging rights,” Silk said with a laugh.

After gaining only 49 yards in the first half, the Indians got on the board in the second when fullback Adam Sokoloski scored on a 13-yard pass from Stormann with 9:32 left in the game.

Roger Cole led the Indians’ offense with 105 yards on 22 carries, while Sokoloski caught four passes for 116 yards.

Old Town coach Ian Braun said mistakes (the two teams combined to commit 25 penalties) were costly.

“We’re not good enough to overcome the kind of mistakes we made tonight against any team,” he said.

Orono coach Wally Covell said during the preseason that the Red Riots were talented – but thin. In the fourth quarter, that lack of depth caught up to his team a bit.

“We only played about 13 guys, so we were just holding on in the fourth quarter,” he said.

But he said there’s no underestimating the value of a win, especially because his team had to come up with a way to stop the surging Indians down the stretch.

“If you’ve been a winner time after time, you can survive those things,” Covell said, “but if you’ve been a loser, it’s the here-we-go-again kind of syndrome.”

RED RIOTS 12, INDIANS 9

Old Town (0-1) 0 0 0 9? 9

Orono (1-0) 6 6 0 0?12

O ? Briggs 31 run (kick failed)

O ? Silk 60 punt return (rush failed)

OT ? Sokoloski 13 pass from Stormann (Cline kick)

OT ? Safety; Levesque downs ball in end zone

Old Town Orono

First downs 7 12

Rushing att.-yards 38-115 43-173

Passing comp.-att. 4-13 2-6

Passing yards 116 27

Total yards 231 200

Punts-avg. 4-31.6 3-43.0

Fumbles-lost 2-1 3-1

Intercepted by 1 0

Penalties-yards 12-85 13-110

Rushing

Old Town: Cole 22-105, Stormann 14-11, Kimball 1-minus 1; Orono: LeGrande 3-4, Briggs 18-115, Mishou 15-50, Cowan 7-4

Passing

Old Town: Stormann 4-13-116-1; Orono: Cowan 2-6-27-0

Receiving

Old Town: Sokoloski 4-116; Orono: Briggs 1-13, Mishou 1-14

A?300 (est.)