Forget sports for a minute. Not many traditions of any persuasion that prevailed in society in 1897 still are being celebrated today.
Baseball’s initial World Series was six years away. The Spanish-American War was yet to begin. William McKinley was president. And a football team from Edward Little High School defeated an outfit from Lewiston High School, 18-0.
The sport was relatively new, and the rivalry took some time to take shape, but the Red Eddies and Blue Devils have squared off on the gridiron every autumn (often twice a year) since 1919.
Friday night, tradition reigns for the 173rd time at Walton Field. Lewiston leads the series 92-68-12 and hasn’t lost a regular-season meeting to EL since 2010.
In conjunction with the 2012 release of his book, “The Battle of the Bridge: The History of Edward Little and Lewiston Football,” Bim Gibson ranked his top five games in the series. We revisit that list this morning with a capsule look at each of those titanic clashes.
Each confrontation was the biggest event in the world to the participants at the time. If you ask this year’s Devils and Eddies, you will discover that the fabric hasn’t changed a bit over the decades. Make that centuries.
5. 1920 — Lewiston 20, Edward Little 13. After playing only sporadically during the World War I decade, the Devils and Eddies likely solidified their rivalry for generations to come with in this October installment of what would become traditional twice-annual meetings.
Lewiston Daily Sun and Lewiston Journal accounts of the game described an atmosphere of gambling and fistfights. The game itself was a slugfest, too. Henry Shanahan returned a fumble 80 yards to give EL the early advantage. Albert Wiseman supplied the answer for Lewiston with a short touchdown run to make it 7-7 at the half.
Another fumble recovery, this time by Lewiston’s Pat Lafond, produced the go-ahead score. Mike Kerrigan continued the turnover theme with a 75-yard interception return for another Devils’ TD and a 20-7 cushion. Everett Woodman scored late in the game for EL, but the Eddies could get no closer. They wouldn’t win again in the series until 1928, 17 games later.
4. 1965 — Lewiston 14, Edward Little 12. The Class A championship went to the regular-season conference champion that year. The Devils were in position to take the title at 7-1-1 with a win. Having absorbed two previous defeats, EL could only play spoiler.
The Eddies lived up to that potential in the first half, taking a 6-0 lead at intermission on a 1-yard run by Paul Pelletier. Lewiston roared back with an authoritative drive to start the third quarter, punctuated by Bill Johnson’s 46-yard scamper. The Devils employed a grind-it-out approach on their next scoring drive, with Mike Parkin barreling in from the 2 on fourth down. John Delahanty booted his second PAT of the period for a 14-6 lead.
Long runs by Butch Lawler and Mike Malo set up another Pelletier touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Gene Benner caught the apparent tying two-point conversion, but the play was flagged for illegal procedure. EL settled for the kick, gambling that it would get the ball back. It did, after a turnover, but Lewiston held on downs inside its own 30 to secure a third consecutive state crown.
3. 1941 — Edward Little 6, Lewiston 0. Two undefeated teams. Two almost impenetrable defenses that had surrendered an average of three points per game. A rematch of a scoreless tie played earlier in the season. All the conditions were in place for the greatest game in the series to date, and the Veterans Day clash didn’t disappoint.
The game was shifted to Garcelon Field at Bates College due to rabid fan interest, with more than 7,000 spectators in place to see (to nobody’s surprise) a scoreless first quarter. Jim Kapoll’s interception and return into Lewiston territory gave the EL offense a second-period boost. Using Kapoll and Roger Henault in tandem, the Eddies embarked on the longest drive of the game, capped by a 2-yard run from Kapoll for a 6-0 halftime lead.
Only the third completed pass of the game, a last-minute strike from Chick Leahey to Emile Bergeron, gave the Devils a prayer, but it went unanswered when Bergeron slipped and fell at the end of a 47-yard gain. Leahey’s subsequent last-ditch attempt missed the mark, and EL survived. The Red Eddies capped a 9-0-1 season with a 13-0 shutout of Deering for the state title a week later.
2. 2002 — Edward Little 16, Lewiston 13, 2 OT. For the first time in a quarter-century (more on that shortly), the Eddies and Devils collided at Walton Field in November with a championship at stake. EL’s 17-13 victory in the traditional regular-season finale left both teams as lower-seeded road warriors in the Class A North playoffs. No. 6 Lewiston bumped No. 3 Mt. Blue before returning home to take out fellow Cinderella Waterville in the semifinals. EL won defensive struggles at No. 1 Gardiner and No. 4 Skowhegan to set up the rematch of a lifetime.
The Devils threatened to run away on the strength of a Jeremy Madore touchdown and a scoring grab by Kirk Bolduc. B.J. Mooney answered with a 34-yard ramble just before the half to get EL within 13-7. Matt Capone’s electrifying 29-yard interception return late in the third quarter knotted the game. Bolduc rose above the fray to block Will Claxton’s extra point try and keep it even.
Defenses dominated the fourth quarter, setting the state for an overtime that wouldn’t quit. Lewiston picked off a pass on EL’s possession from the 10-yard line. The Devils then drove to the 3 before the ball squirted loose and into the hands of the Eddies’ Brian Taylor, extending the season for at least one more exchange of goal-line possessions.
Lewiston fumbled once more, and Ethan Caswell pounced to put EL in the driver’s seat. The Eddies pounded away but couldn’t reach paydirt, persuading EL coach Jim Hersom to send out Claxton for what have been considered a chip shot in the NFL. On muddy turf, having not made a 3-pointer all season, knowing that Claxton’s previous kick was swatted down, it was anything but automatic. But Claxton split the uprights with a ball that landed on the roof of the school, and the Eddies were champions.
1. 1977 — Edward Little 22, Lewiston 20. When anyone who was alive at the time considers the rich history of the rivalry, this is assuredly the first game that comes to their mind. Only once before, and not since, had each team been undefeated entering the game. It was the de facto Class A North championship, played at 1:30 p.m. on Veterans Day. Thanks to a tie on EL’s ledger, Lewiston needed only a tie to wrap up the title, while EL required a win to defend its state championship against South Portland the following week. That distinction would play a substantial role in the play that settled the game.
It wasn’t a vintage game in terms of execution, either. Both teams lost a pair of fumbles. With the exception of one EL drive, most of the points scored in the game were the product of a short field, thanks to turnovers or special teams blunders. Mike Ouellette scored the first of his three touchdowns on a 4-yard run to give the Blue Devils a 6-0 lead. His other two scores were aerial connections with John Theberge. Running behind Fitzpatrick Trophy winner and future pro lineman Gerry Raymond, Ouellette shredded the EL defense in the annual exhibition game, but he was held to 14 yards on nine carries in the rematch.
Still, his catches provided Lewiston a comfortable 20-6 lead late in the third quarter when an errant snap gifted the Eddies with first-and-goal from the 5. Quarterback Jim Hersom rushed for his second touchdown of the game, followed by a Rick Schrepper PAT rush. Lewiston appeared to put away the game after transforming another bad snap into a broken-field, 56-yard TD ramble by its punter, but a flag for clipping soured the celebration.
EL took over and cashed in a pair of now-or-else plays. First Schrepper corralled a screen pass from and scampered into the end zone from 13 yards out on fourth-and-goal tie it. Then, with kicker Chuck Davis lined up for the all-important extra point, holder Pat Brown pulled off the fake and fired a perfect strike to Jeff Bryant for two. The Red Eddies’ defense held once on downs, then made the tackle on a Hail Mary well shy of the end zone to close the door on a donnybrook.
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