FARMINGTON — The Mt. Blue football team chanted “One more week” after the game, knowing it had made the Class B playoffs.

How the Cougars solidified their spot in the playoffs Saturday was the stuff of legend.

Down 36-30 with 35 seconds remaining in the game, Mt. Blue drove 62 yards and scored the final touchdown on an 18-yard pass from Ryan Pratt to Nate Pratt-Holt. With Anthony Franchetti’s extra-point, the Cougars beat Brewer 37-36 at Caldwell Field.

During the drive, the Cougars (4-3) found themselves in a fourth-and-8 situation after Pratt threw back-to-back incompletions. But a desperation heave found Pratt-Holt’s hands for a 25-yard gain and first down. Pratt connected with Christian Whitney on a 16-yard pass on the next play, placing Mt. Blue at the Witches’ 18-yard line with three seconds remaining.

On the next play, Pratt dropped back, scrambled to his left and floated the ball into the end zone and into the waiting hands of Pratt-Holt as time expired.

“I saw (Pratt-Holt) in the corner of the end zone, but didn’t see him for very long,” said Pratt, who was 6 of 9 passing for 111 yards. “I just hocked it up there.”

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“It was a fade (route),” Pratt-Holt said. “I knew Ryan was probably going to throw it to me. The line did a great job (blocking) and Ryan did a great job getting it out there and rolling out, staying away from the defense. I knew I needed to get up for it. The coaches always say go get (the pass) at the highest point.”

Following a time out, Franchetti calmly kicked the extra-point straight through the uprights for the win.

Down 30-14 entering the third quarter, Brewer (3-4) scored 22 unanswered points. Witches quarterback Logan Rogerson hit running back Zac Duncan on a rollout pass to cut the lead to 30-20. Brewer recovered the ball on the ensuing squib kickoff and scored on the following play, as running back Dylan Severance broke multiple Mt. Blue defenders and reached the end zone on a 29-yard run. Rogerson ran for the two-point conversion to bring the score to 30-28.

“We didn’t quit,” Brewer head coach Nick Arthers said. “In a lot of other weeks, we would pack it in and say it’s over and done with. We’ve been getting better each week at not quitting and leaving it all on the field. We did that today, it just happened that we fell a couple seconds short.”

Brewer’s defense forced a four-and-out on the next series, and after the Cougars punted the Witches started their next drive on their own 46-yard line. Brewer drove 54 yards on 11 plays, capped by a 13-yard touchdown run by Severance to give Brewer the 36-30 lead. They left a little too much time on the clock.

“I don’t think anybody expected us to get up off the canvas after that last punch,” Mt. Blue head coach Jim Aylward said. “It says a lot about our kids. My heart goes out to Brewer, but this is one of those things that you do that everything the kids practice for, all the years of coaching, makes it worthwhile.”

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The two teams battled throughout the first half. The Cougars jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to touchdown runs of 6 and 7 yards by running back JT Williams. Brewer responded in the second quarter when Rogerson was able to deliver a 9-yard scoring toss to Tyler Hafford to cut the lead to 13-8. Franchetti added a 25-yard field goal right before halftime to extend Mt. Blue’s lead to 16-8.

Williams tacked on two more touchdown runs for the Cougars, one for 73 yards, the other for 6 yards. Williams ran for 258 yards on 24 carries and four touchdowns. However, he reinjured his left knee late in the third quarter and did not return. It’s the same knee that kept Williams — also a fixture on defense at linebacker — out of the Cougars’ lineup earlier in the season. Aylward said Williams, who was seen on crutches after the game, is questionable for next week’s game.

Rogerson found Hafford again on a 22-yard touchdown pass, as Mt. Blue entered the fourth quarter with the 30-14 lead.

Rogerson, a threat both passing and running was 13 of 18 passing for 174 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 91 yards on 10 carries.

“He’s a special athlete,” Arthers said. “Even as a junior, he’s one of the leaders on the offensive side. You can always count on him to give a spark. Sometimes when you think you’ve bottled him in, he’ll find a way out of it.”

Severance added 111 yards rushing on 22 carries.

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Mt. Blue had 440 yards of offense, while Brewer had 414.

Dave Dyer — 621-5639

ddyer@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Dave_Dyer


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