BELFAST – An unidentified Brewer player pretty much encapsulated Friday night’s battle of unbeatens in one sentence.

“They are just taking it to us,” said the stunned player shortly after Belfast scored its second touchdown in a two-minute span late in the third quarter.

In terms of who won, Friday’s 36-6 Belfast victory wasn’t a stunner, but the score certainly was as the game featured two 7-0 teams with virtually identical statistics battling for LTC Class B supremacy and home-field advantage throughout the LTC playoffs.

The host Lions took an early 12-0 lead and then roared in the third quarter to turn a precarious 12-6 lead into a lopsided victory.

And even though the game-turning play was a fumbled kickoff, it was the basic execution up front that won the game for the 8-0 Lions.

“Our line played amazing today. They dominated every facet of the game. These guys are the real thing,” said senior quarterback John Lear, who carried the ball 15 times for 123 yards and a touchdown, but also passed it for another TD and 34 more yards.

The offensive line of center Tom Ward, tackles Marcus Colby and Josh Payson, and guards Ian Dutch and Zach Gallant – along with some help from ends Tim Aldus and Kane Ackley – dominated the line of scrimmage and made it possible for star tailback Jeff Parenteau and Lear to combine for 292 of Belfast’s 341 rushing yards in the game.

“We had a strategy with our offensive line and they’ve improved each week and risen to one of the better lines in our 10 years here,” said Lions co-coach Butch Arthers. “And they just seem to get better every week.”

The blocking up front made Belfast’s strategy to use Parenteau as more of a decoy outside early on and free up Lear and fullback Matt Welch for some straight-ahead runs up the middle much easier to execute.

“They did a real nice job. The scheme of their system is to take advantage of a defense’s aggressiveness,” said Witches coach Josh Emmett. “They just played Belfast football.”

“We didn’t want to keep pounding Jeff until they figured out what was happening, so we just mixed it up,” said co-coach Butch Richards.

The Lions dominated time of possession in the first quarter as Brewer had the ball on offense for just two of the 12 minutes. Belfast scored on its first two possessions with a 12-play, 73-yard drive to start and an eight-play, 73-yard drive.

The second quarter was scoreless, but the Witches seemed to get some momentum going as they stormed out of halftime and scored on the opening drive of the second half. Brewer drove 60 yards in six plays and scored on Chris Noyes’ 18-yard touchdown run off left tackle and down the sideline 3:10 in. Belfast answered with another marathon drive, this one covering 58 yards in 12 plays and five minutes, 22 seconds.

The key play came with 3:17 left in the third as Nick Arthers’ kickoff bounced around in front of a Brewer player, who kept losing the handle on the ball. Belfast’s Tim Morley fell on the loose ball at the Brewer 20 and four plays later, Lear’s 7-yard TD run made it 28-6.

“That was the biggest play of the game. That just lit a fire under us and we knew we had to put it in then, or we were gonna have to battle some more,” Parenteau said.

Brewer punted on its next possession and the Lions capped the scoring early in the fourth with a six-play, 68-yard drive highlighted by a Parenteau 39-yard TD run in which he burst up the middle, broke three tackles simultaneously, and sprinted away to the end zone.

Josh Caldwell led Brewer’s offense with 95 yards on 18 carries.

LIONS 36, WITCHES 6

Brewer (7-1) 0 0 6 0 ? 6

Belfast (8-0) 12 0 16 8 ? 36

Bel ? Ames 9 pass from Lear (rush failed)

Bel ? Parenteau 5 run (rush failed)

Bre ? Noyes 18 run (kick failed)

Bel ? Parenteau 10 run (Leavitt rush)

Bel ? Lear 7 run (Lear pass to Aldus)

Bel ? Parenteau 39 run (Lear pass to Ames)

Brewer Belfast

First downs 9 21

Rushing att.-yards 32-153 51-341

Passing comp.-att. 0-8 3-7

Passing yards 0 34

Total yards 153 375

Punts-avg. 3-38.7 1-34.0

Fumbles-lost 4-1 3-0

Intercepted by 0 1

Penalties-yards 4-20 0-0

Rushing

Brewer: Caldwell 18-95, Emerson 5-36, Noyes 3-24, Collins 4-1, Rancourt 2-(-3); Belfast: Parenteau 25-169, Lear 15-123, Welch 7-26, Arthers 2-21, Herman 2-2

Passing

Brewer: Collins 0-8-1-0; Belfast: Lear 3-7-0-34

Receiving

Brewer: none; Belfast: Welch 2-25, Ames 1-9

A?1,100 (est.)