BREWER — The Brewer High School football team knew it had a mismatch on the line against smaller Lawrence. In Friday night’s Pine Tree Conference Class B quarterfinal game, the Witches exploited that size advantage every chance they got.

Led by Dylan Severance, the Witches ran for 284 yards, built a big first half lead and cruised to a 35-8 win. No. 3 Brewer (8-1) will play at No. 2 Skowhegan (7-1) in the semifinals. No. 6 Lawrence finished 4-5.

“The game plan was to run the ball right down their throat and to be more physical than they were,” Severance said.

To that end, Severance played a big role. The senior had 42 carries for 188 yards and scored a pair of first half touchdowns to help the Witches build their lead.

“I did not expect that at all,” Severance said of carrying the ball so many time, “but hey, we got the win. Our line did a great job.”

Brewer set the tone right from its first series. Severance carried the ball on Brewer’s first six plays and while the drive stalled on the Lawrence 1-yard line, the Witches knew they could run the ball on the Bulldogs.

“It was a good display by them to use their power running game. They certainly have the horses up front to do that against a team like us. We really don’t match up that way,” Lawrence coach John Hersom said.

Severance scored on a 1-yard run with 3:36 left in the first quarter to give Brewer a 6-0 lead. On the Witches’ next possession, Severance capped a 14-play, 85-yard drive with a 23-yard touchdown run down the left sideline. Logan Rogerson completed a pass to Erick Seekins for the 2-point conversion and the Witches led 14-0 with 7:23 left in the half.

Brewer scored once more in the second quarter, with just 18 seconds left in the half, when Rogerson went 15 yards on a fourth and seven bootleg, giving the Witches a 22-0 lead at the break.

Lawrence struggled to get anything going offensively in the first half and picked up just three first downs in the half. Brewer focused on stopping receiver Seth Powers and running back Mitchell Cushing, Severance said.

“We just needed to make some sticks. We watched a lot of film on them. We knew what they were going to do. We knew who their best players were. We just had to be more physical and make plays,” Severance said.

Danny Davis caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Rogerson with 1:16 left in the third quarter to push Brewer’s lead to 28-0. Lawrence got on the board with 7:31 left in the game, when Braden Ballard connected with Powers for a four yard touchdown pass.

Ray Wood (11 carries, 49 yards) capped the scoring for Brewer with a three yard run with 3:28 to play. Rogerson ran for 43 yards and threw for 84 for the Witches.

The loss was a tough end of the season for Lawrence, which started the year with four straight losses before winning four straight to reach the playoffs.

“We’re proud of our kids. We’ll hopefully us this as motivation to get better next season,” Hersom said.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM

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