SKOWHEGAN — The game started with a great play, and it wouldn’t be the last time Skowhegan would make a lot of yardage.

Kaleb Brown took the opening kickoff 69 yards, the Indians quickly scored and led Edward Little less than three minutes into the game. Skowhegan took it from there, racking up 475 yards of offense in a 51-29 Pine Tree Conference Class A football victory Friday night at Clark Field.

“That’s one of the things that we’ve stressed in the last couple weeks is finishing drives,” Skowhegan coach Matt Friedman said. “Tonight, we did a better job of that.”

The frigid temperatures didn’t project offensive fireworks, but Skowhegan still led 32-0 at the half. For Skowhegan, Ben Salley ran for 84 yards on seven carries, all in the first half, and Brown carried the ball only in the second half and rushed for a game-high 148 yards on 14 attempts.

Quarterback Adam Clukey finished 8 of 16 for 181 yards and two touchdowns before giving way to sophomore Nate Morris for the entire second half.

“(Adam) sprained his left shoulder in practice on Wednesday,” Friedman said. “He was good to go, but we thought if we could get him out of there early, we were going to.”

Advertisement

Brown took the opening kickoff at his own 7-yard line and sprinted up the middle before being caught on the right sideline at the Red Eddies 24.

“I bobbled the ball at the beginning of that, which wasn’t good,” Brown said. “I kind of just looked up and a hole opened up, and I just followed my blockers.”

Skowhegan (3-4) scored shortly after on an 8-yard run by Tyler Savage. Later in the first half, Savage added a 1-yard plunge and a 42-yard touchdown pass from Clukey on a fake punt to put Skowhegan up 18-0. Salley added a 36-yard run and Clukey hit DJ Allen from 3 yards to put the Indians up 32-0.

While EL quarterback Sean Ford was pressured on most of his throws and was harassed into two intentional grounding penalties, he did end up completing 15 of 33 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns.

Most of that damage went to Quinn Leary, a big tight end who simply out-jumped defenders for several of his catches. Leary ended up with 11 receptions for 179 yards and three scores.

“He’s tall. He’s got good hands. He’s really fast. He’s a really good receiver,” Friedman said.

Advertisement

Ford threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Leary to get the Eddies on the board, before Brett Gilbert responded with a 1-yard run to put Skowhegan back up, 38-7.

In the fourth quarter, Ford found Ian Mileikis from 38 yards out and Leary on fourth-and-goal from the 9 to put EL (1-6) within 38-21 with 7:18 left. Brown iced the game with touchdown runs of 40 and 27 yards.

Brown scored his final touchdown with 52 seconds left. Ford then passed to Leary for 54 yards to the Skowhegan 4, and threw to him again for the score with 22 seconds left to finally wrap up the scoring.

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@mainetoday.com
 


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.