BREWER, Maine — Senior halfback Dylan Severance rushed for 189 yards and two touchdowns on 44 carries Friday night as the Brewer Witches controlled the line of scrimmage and powered past Lawrence of Fairfield 35-8 in a Class B North football quarterfinal at Doyle Field.
“They’ve been making great holes for me all season, especially tonight,” said Severance, a 1,000-yard rusher for Brewer during the regular season. “They opened up huge holes enabling me to get across the line of scrimmage and allowing me to do my thing down the field.”
Third-ranked Brewer (8-1) will play at No. 2 Skowhegan in next weekend’s regional semifinals. Skowhegan, which earned a quarterfinal bye, handed Brewer a 21-14 defeat in Week 4 of the regular season.
No. 6 Lawrence, which rallied from an 0-4 start with four straight wins to earn the final playoff berth in the division, ended its season at 4-5.
Severance scored on runs of 1 and 23 yards in the first half as coach Nick Arthers’ club built a 22-0 lead at intermission — in great part behind the work of offensive linemen Zach Caron, Alex Brooks, Austin Lufkin, Tyler Bean and Jordan Wood.
“We had to figure some stuff out early but once we got going we made some adjustments, and you can’t stop Dylan Severance once he gets going,” said Caron. “Our job is to make a hole, and he hits it.”
Severance amassed 103 of Brewer’s 188 rushing yards in the first half, with that ball control and stout defense by the Witches limiting Lawrence to just 39 total yards before the break.
“That’s been our key all year, to get the ball to our running backs,” said Arthers, whose team finished the game with 286 yards on the ground. “In the first half we did a pretty good job of opening up holes. Lawrence did a tremendous job in the second half of doing some different blitzes and sending some different people, they did a very good job in the second half.”
Senior quarterback Logan Rogerson added a 15-yard scoring run for Brewer with just 18 seconds left in the second quarter, then hit Danny Davis with a 10-yard touchdown strike that extended the Witches’ lead to 28-0 late in the third period.
“I’m very happy with our guys and the way we came out and were able to move the ball down the field,” said Arthers. “That really helped out our defense as far as putting some points on the board and being able to play with the lead.”
Lawrence, which defeated Brewer 34-14 in a 2014 regional quarterfinal, scored its lone touchdown midway through the fourth quarter on a 4-yard pass from Braden Ballard to Seth Powers.
Brewer answered four minutes later with a 3-yard scoring run by junior fullback Trey Wood.
Trey Wood added 48 yards on 11 rushes for Brewer, while Rogerson rushed for 41 yards and completed 5 of 8 passes for 83 yards as the Witches outgained Lawrence 369-164 in total yardage.
Ballard was limited to 3-of-18 passing for 48 yards for Lawrence, while Gunner McAllister rushed for a team-high 62 yards on five carries.
