PORTLAND — A gut check moment turned into a gut-wrenching eternity for the Lewiston Blue Devils the moment they saw their teammate, Quintarian Brown, lying on his left side on the weathered Fitzpatrick Stadium turf Saturday.
Brown remained still in that position for about 15 minutes while being attended to by Lewiston coach Bill County and a trainer and waiting for a Portland Fire Department ambulance. When it did arrive, the junior running back was placed on a stretcher, loaded into the ambulance and transported to a Portland hospital.
According to County, Brown suffered what medical personnel termed a non-emergency injury while being tackled on the second play of the second half of Lewiston’s 67-8 loss to Cheverus.
“I honestly think he got a little whiplash,” County said. “His head slammed back on the turf and he got a little dizzy.”
While the news got better for the Blue Devils’ top playmaker, it got worse on the scoreboard for his team.
Cheverus’ Joe Fitzpatrick rushed for 185 yards and five touchdowns on 11 attempts, all in the first half. The junior halfback ran for three of his touchdowns on consecutive carries of six, 63 and 50 yards in the first quarter as the Stags (2-0) opened up a 28-0 lead after one and a 49-0 lead before halftime.
“We had a great job by our offensive line today,” Fitzpartick said. “(Fullback) Cody O’Brien did a great job lead blocking through the holes, but I think overall our line was the biggest asset today, Greg Grinnell, Pat Ball, Connor Conley, Frankie Curran, all of them.”
Cody O’Brien added a 32-yard touchdown run and Zordan Holman blocked a punt and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown before the intermission to rub salt in the wound.
The game, which was moved to Fitzpatrick Stadium due to flooding at Cheverus’ home field, Boulos Stadium, was Lewiston’s first in Portland since moving to the Pine Tree Conference in 2002. It was also the Stags’ first game against an “original” Eastern A opponent since changing regions with the four-class realignment.
Lewiston (0-2), which came into the game with an injury-depleted offensive line, managed just 40 yards and two first downs in the first half.
“Four out of the five of my starting linemen are out. There wasn’t a single guy up front that has started a game prior to this season, so I knew we were going to struggle a little bit,” County said.
“I thought there were some things that we were going to be able to do offensively to at least milk the clock a little bit and keep the clock moving, and there were a couple of series where I thought on first down we were okay,” he said. “But then there was a mistake, an offside, a motion penalty or a missed block and now you’re in second-and-long. We’re just not good enough for that.”
Brown was one of the few bright spots for the Devils, rushing for 68 yards on 13 carries before getting injured.
The Devils did make a contribution to the highlight reel with their lone score, which came late in the fourth quarter against the Stags’ backups. Ace Curry’s pass to a leaping Ben Howell deflected off the wide receiver’s chest and into the arms of a trailing Sheon James, who raced down the right sideline to complete the 49-yard play.
Lewiston needed all of the positives it could get heading into next Friday, when it hosts another Eastern Class A newcomer, Windham.
“You throw in those young kids and they work hard all week and then they get a little baptism today,” County said. “They’ll bounce back. The kids love to play. I told them at halftime, ‘You’ve got 24 minutes of football that every adult who’s not wearing pads would love to have right now, regardless of the score. So do what you love to do. Go play.’ I didn’t think they quit.”
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