BREWER, Maine — Brewer High School senior running back Bryant Kiley hadn’t had many carries in his career because he was playing behind the likes of talented Trey Wood and Dylan Severance.
He was a two-year starter at cornerback but his first game as the starting running back was a memorable one Friday night.
The shifty Kiley ran for 330 yards on 29 carries and scored all three touchdowns, including a game-changing 99-yarder, to lead the Witches to a hard-fought and entertaining 21-19 Class B North victory over Lawrence High of Fairfield at Doyle Field.
Kiley credited his line for his remarkable night.
“It’s the line, it’s always the line,” said the 5-foot-10, 150-pounder Kiley. “They open the holes for me and that makes it easy. I just have to lower my shoulder and keep going.”
“I was really happy for him. He had a good game,” said Brewer coach Nick Arthers. “And I was really happy for our guys that they were able to pull this one off.”
“They ran the ball well with him back there. He looks like a strong runner,” said Lawrence coach John Hersom.
The turning point in the game occurred in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.
Brewer led 14-12 but the Bulldogs had moved the ball to the Brewer one-yard line courtesy of a 38-yard punt return by Isaiah Schooler, his 15-yard scamper on a counter and Tyler Larouche’s 10-yard run.
But a fumbled exchange on what appeared to be a quarterback sneak by Braden Ballard was recovered by Brewer’s Jaycob Miller and, on the next play, Kiley found a hole off right tackle and scooted down the right sideline for the TD.
“It was just a play off tackle. The hole was there, I hit the hole and I was gone,” said Kiley.
“It was a trap play and we had run it (successfully) earlier in the game. I was thinking of running a pass but the older Arthers strongly advised against it,” said Nick, referring to his dad, Butch, an assistant coach with the Witches.
The Bulldogs didn’t give up, putting together a 13-play, 70-yard drive to pull within 21-19 on Larouche’s two-yard run with 2:04 remaining.
But the Witches salted the game away by picking up three first downs, two off runs by Kiley.
Kiley opened the scoring with a two-yard run and his brother, Andrew, kicked the extra point.
But Larouche answered with an impressive 40-yard run in which he carried a couple of tacklers across the goal line. A bad snap on the extra point left the Bulldogs trailing 7-6.
Brewer was about the extend the lead late in the second quarter but Schooler intercepted a Cody Wood pass and raced 98 yards for a touchdown to give Lawrence a 12-7 lead at the intermission.
The Brewer offensive line comprised of center Zach Steiger, guards Phil Feeney and Garrett Graham and tackles Miller and Tyler Bean controlled the line of scrimmage in the second half and Brewer took the second half kickoff and marched 68 yards on 14 plays to take a lead it would never relinquish.
Kiley carried the ball eight times for 49 yards including an eight-yard TD.
Lawrence was about to recapture the lead when the fumble and Kiley’s 99-yard run swung the momentum back to Brewer.
“We got more focused at halftime. Our line got angry and started moving people better,” said Brewer quarterback Wood. “Bryant ran pretty hard tonight.”
“We saw their intentions in the second half,” said Hersom. “They came right out and drove the field. We need to coach a little better, including myself, to include more schemes on defense.
“We have some defensive issues. We’ve got some guys in different spots and we’re coaching them up. Our guys hung in there. Brewer is a quality program. They do a good job and deserved to win tonight,” said Hersom.
The hard-running Larouche gained 105 yards on 16 carries for Lawrence and Schooler had over 100 return yards and also ran for 40 second-half yards on six carries.
Brewer defensive standouts included Andrew Kiley, Hunter Umel, Feeney, Stieger and Jacob McCluskey while Lawrence’s defensive effort was led by Logan Fortin, Spencer Trask, Jerico Champagne, Jared Dodge and Ballard.