WATERVILLE — It didn’t have hype. It didn’t have a fancy nickname.

But the fans who sat in the bleachers Saturday afternoon at Drummond Field were treated to a game deserving of both.

It took 11 seconds for the Waterville football team to go from having a happy Senior Day to suffering a tough loss. In those 11 seconds, Brewer quarterback Logan Rogerson completed a 64-yard touchdown pass to Spencer Valley to give the Witches a 26-21 win in a Pine Tree Conference Class B game.

The win was key for Brewer, which improves to 5-2. Waterville falls to 4-3.

With 12.5 seconds remaining, Rogerson dropped back to pass and found Valley running a fade route down the sideline. Rogerson threw it with enough loft for Valley to make a jumping catch inbounds. Valley then proceeded to make an inside spin, evading two defenders before sprinting 40 more yards for the score.

“Coach just said ‘Let (Spencer Valley) be an athlete and get up there’ and I just chucked it up there, pretty much,” Rogerson said. “Spencer just made a great catch, broke two tackles and got in the end zone.”

Spencer Valley said he used the sun to his advantage on the scoring play.

“I saw the shadow of the (defender) behind me,” Valley said. “So I just made a little move toward the sideline and he fell on my ankles and I just made it to the end zone. I got some help from the sun on that one for sure.”

Waterville seemed to be in line for the win, getting the ball with 1:23 left in the game. Waterville failed to run out the clock and was forced to punt, giving the Witches the chance to win the game.

“We should have run the clock out and we didn’t,” Waterville coach Frank Knight said. “They were able to get one more play, and they made that play.”

The Witches, down 21-6 at the start of the fourth quarter, scored on two consecutive drives. Dillon Smith scored from 4-yards out and Brody Valley from 5-yards out. Spencer Valley then recovered an onside kick, though the Witches could not convert the extra posession into a score.

Waterville seemed in control in the first half. The Panther defense forced five turnovers, including three interceptions of Rogerson, who finished 14 for 26 for 221 yards and a touchdown.

“We let (Brewer) hang around,” Knight said. “We had a great start, but they hung in there. We had some opportunities early to put them out of the game and we didn’t.”

Waterville took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on a 1-yard TD run by fullback Derek Lachance and a 9-yard pass from Aidan FitzGerald to Jordhan Levine. David Bailey scored on a 17-yard run in the second quarter for the Panthers. Bailey finished with 70 yards on eight carries.

Brody Valley led the Witches with 83 yards rushing on 21 carries.

Dave Dyer — 621-5639

ddyer@centralmaine.com

 

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