Sanford ran the ball 50 times, gaining 229 yards and controlling the ball throughout most of the game to hold off Lewiston for a 22-14 victory Friday night in Class A football action.
“We’ve been doing that for several years now. We try to wear people down and we’ve been pretty effective at it,” Sanford coach Mike Fallon said.
Senior back Nick Howard led the Spartans (3-2) with 77 yards, carrying the ball 20 times in the victory. Keith Kerrigan added 55 yards and quarterback Frankie Veino added 51 on the ground for the visiting team.
The contest opened promising for the Blue Devils (1-4) when Sean O’Donnell intercepted a Veino pass on the fourth play of the game. Unfortunately, the Blue Devils had a quick three-and-out, punting the ball back to Sanford.
Sanford turned the ball over a second time, this by way of fumbling deep in Lewiston territory. Once again, Lewiston stalled out on just five plays, punting again. Sanford did not waste this opportunity and with 2:05 left in the first quarter, Veino hit Ethan Belanger on a deep pass down the left side for a 69-yard score for a 7-0 first quarter lead.
Lewiston answered in the second quarter with a 10-play drive getting a 17-yard scamper from Roman Dennis for the score. Dennis finished the game 69 yards rushing.
“He ran well for us tonight. He didn’t practice all week because of his shoulder but the trainers gave him the go today,” Lewiston coach Bruce Nicholas said.
Sanford got the final score of the first half, scoring on a 4th-and-15 reverse by Belanger for his second touchdown of the game for a 14-6 halftime score. Lewiston opened the second half fumbling the kickoff, setting up Sanford in Lewiston territory. Veino connected on a pair of passes, finding Noah L’Heureux for a 5-yard strike and Michael Lunny for another 13 yards before getting the score and two-point conversion by Howard.
“When you have to tackle a big body like that, it wears you down,” Nicholas said.
Sanford continued pounding the ball on the ground gaining first downs and killing the clock on offense. Defensively, the Spartans intercepted Blue Devil quarterback Tanner Cortes three times while holding their rushing game to just 92 yards.
“I told the kids these are the types of teams we’ll see in the first round of the playoffs and we feel pretty good about ourselves with that,” Nicholas said.
Lewiston added a late score with 3 minutes remaining when Ed Turgeon made a nice grab from Cortes. After the two-point conversion, they trailed, 22-14.
Lewiston did not get another chance to tie the game, as Sanford punted deep into Lewiston territory to end the game as the clock expired.
Lewiston travels next week to Portland.
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