BREWER — The Skowhegan football team needed a hot start on a cool Friday night to turn back Brewer at Doyle Field.

Quarterback Marcus Christopher connected on his first 11 passes — three going for touchdowns — as Skowhegan prevailed, 36-24.

With the win, Skowhegan (4-2) remains atop the Pine Tree Conference Class B standings. Brewer fell to 1-5.

Christopher completed 14 of 20 passes for 255 yards. He also rushed for 61 yards and a touchdown.

“I’d say last week (a 41-0 win over Hampden Academy) was a big confidence booster. We just carried that into this week,” Christopher said.

Christopher connected with Aidan Louder for touchdown passes of 23 and 39 yards to cap the Indians’ first two drives. After recovering a Brewer fumble, Skowhegan drove 53 yards for its third score, when Christopher checked a shovel pass to running back Hunter Washburn for a 15-yard score. Washburn added a six-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter to give the Indians a 24-8 halftime lead.

“We worked a lot this week on where we needed to get to (offensively),” Christopher said. “We found the open areas and were really able to exploit them.”

The Indians scored again on their first drive of the second half, a 57-yard march that Christopher capped with a 13-yard scoring dash for the 30-8 lead.

“The start (of the game) was really great,” Skowhegan coach Ryan Libby said. “We kind of shot ourselves in the foot with penalties there down the stretch, but we definitely started things off on the right foot, got things rolling early.”

The Witches refused to quit, using the deception of double dives all night to rack up rushing yards on the Skowhegan defense. Ethan Hayes scored on a three-yard run to cut the score to 30-16 just before the end of the third quarter.

Skowhegan answered back with a two-yard touchdown run by Washburn to lengthen the lead to 36-16. Brewer responded on the next drive with an 18-yard scoring scamper by Jacob McCluskey, but time and the lack of a successful passing game kept the Witches from making a comeback.

“Brewer does what Brewer does,” Libby said. “They line up and try to grind it out and beat you with the run. They’ve got guys that can do that, they just didn’t have quite enough. They’re a good football team with some good athletes.”

McCluskey finished with 119 yards rushing on 13 carries for Brewer, while Andrew Kiley added 118 yards on 23 carries.

Washburn led the Skowhegan ground attack with 111 yards on 29 carries. Colby Miller has four receptions for 80 yards for the Indians.

Dave Dyer — 621-5640

ddyer@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Dave_Dyer

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