AUBURN — Edward Little moved the ball but couldn’t finish in its 17-14 loss to Cheverus at Walton Field on Friday night.
The Red Eddies turned the ball over four times after driving into Cheverus territory, including twice in the fourth quarter when they had moved inside the 10-yard line while trailing by three points.
Quarterback Grant Hartley fumbled near the goal line. Later, with fewer than two minutes remaining, Hartley was intercepted by Cheverus’ Kieran Conley.
“The game wasn’t turned on just one play at the end, there were plenty of plays that happened,” Edward Little coach Dave Sterling said.
Drives in the first half ended with interceptions from the 39- and 21-yard lines.
But the Eddies were still in the game, thanks to big plays and a stifling-for-the-most-part defense.
Hartley continued his last-second heroics with a 36-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Blanchard on the final play of the first half, tying the game at 7-7.
Blanchard tied the score again in the second half when he turned a screen pass into an 82-yard touchdown reception.
Blanchard caught six passes for 183 yards. Fellow receiver CJ Jipson racked up 112 yards on seven catches. Hartley finished with 337 yards passing while completing 18 of 30 passes.
The Eddies compiled 441 total yards and advanced into Cheverus territory on seven of their eight drive in the game.
EL’s defense mostly contained the Stags, but was doomed by three big plays.
The run-oriented Stags took a 7-0 lead when Jack Casale threw over the Eddies’ defense to Griffin Walton for a 63-yard score.
On the first drive of the second half, a sack by EL’s Alex Cook and a delay of game penalty pushed Cheverus back to its own 3-yard line. But on third-and-26, Jack Casale found Dominic Casale streaking down the sideline, and Dominic Casale took it to the end zone for a 97-yard touchdown.
“I think our O-line did a great job,” Jack Casale said. “I just threw one up there, Dom made a great catch, but our O-line held, that’s what really gave it to us; they held their blocks and we were able to run stuff off that.”
Late in the third quarter, Jack Casale and Walton connected for a 58-yard gain that set up a 22-yard field goal by Chandler Hartigan that ended up being the difference in the game.
Those three plays accounted for 221 of the Stags’ 302 yards in the game. Minus the two big second-half plays, the Eddies’ defense held Cheverus to 20 yards after halftime.
“That’s what it comes down to (a few plays),” Sterling said. “Offensively, as well, we had a couple plays we could have punched it into the end zone. Those are things we can get better at, as a team. We realized that maybe we make an extra block, we spring things. So that’s something we can really build from.”
The Eddies were without leading rusher Caden Begos, and instead relied mostly on receiver Maxx Bell, Hartley and Caelen Pelletier. Those three combined to gain 131 yards on 32 carries.
Begos wasn’t the only key player EL was without Friday.
“We have 10 guys that were sitting on the sidelines that were starters that are injured right now,” Sterling said. “So, to be able to compete and stay in ball games, get a chance to win, as well as what we did last week (a 32-28 win over Oxford Hills/Buckfield), we’re happy. We just got to keep working.”
With the loss, the Eddies (2-2) missed out on a chance to take their claim in the upper tier of Class A North, which in recent years has been reserved for Cheverus (3-1), Windham (2-1) and Portland (2-1).
“It was a well-fought game right to the end. We know they’re a playoff team, we’re going to be a playoff team as well,” Sterling said.
“We just got to get back and focus up so we don’t cause problems for ourselves and take control of the ball, and also execute what we need to do defensively, and play all three aspects of the game correctly.”
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