BREWER, Maine — Senior running back Andrew Kiley scored two touchdowns and rushed for 93 yards as the Brewer Witches pulled away from Bangor 26-12 in a preseason football game at Doyle Field on Friday night.
The win was the fourth straight for Brewer in the 107-game series with its cross-river rivalry that began in 1903. Bangor leads the series overall 73-26-8.
The game was the final warmup before the start of the regular season next Friday night, when Class B Brewer hosts Biddeford and Class A Bangor visits Edward Little of Auburn.
Kiley scored on a 4-yard run early in the second quarter to break a 6-6 tie and added a 50-yard punt return to the end zone late in the third quarter to extend the Witches’ 12-6 halftime lead.
The youthful Bangor team played a solid game defensively, but struggled to sustain an offensive flow against a Brewer defense that recorded four quarterback sacks and limited the Rams to 112 total yards.
Brewer drove 60 yards in 10 plays after taking the opening kickoff, with Kaleb Bryant scoring from 16 yards out on a first-down counter play to the left with 7:40 left in the opening quarter.
Senior quarterback Brandon Glidden completed all three passes he threw during the drive, including a 12-yard strike to Kiley on a fourth-and-6 from the Bangor 41 to keep the march alive.
The Witches threatened to extend the lead on its next possession, but when fullback Ethan Hayes fumbled while trying to stretch the ball across the goal line it came loose and Bangor sophomore Eli Bradford scooped up the fumble and raced 94 yards down the left sideline to forge a 6-6 tie with 5:12 left in the first period.
Brewer took the ensuing kickoff and drove 62 yards to regain the lead when Kiley scored from 4 yards out to make it 12-6 on the first play of the second quarter.
The big play on this drive was a 24-yard pass from Glidden to Hayes in the right flat for a first down at the Bangor 12. That play came two plays after Glidden had been sacked by Bangor’s Jonathan Lyon for an 8-yard loss.
Bangor’s best drive of the half came in the final minute when the Rams marched from their 33 to the Brewer 21 before time expired. A 17-yard pass completion from Zach Milliken to tight end Cole Jordan was the big play of the possession.
Brewer amassed 204 total yards before intermission, with Kiley rushing for 63 yards on 10 carries and Glidden completing 7 of 8 passes for 89 yards. Hayes, the transfer from Old Town, had four catches for 61 yards.
Sophomore James Neel had four rushes for 26 yards in the first half for Bangor.
Bangor got the ball at midfield to open the second half when Jordan gathered in a Brewer onside kick, but Kiley and and Zach Steiger came up with big defensive plays before a holding penalty forced Bangor to punt.
Kiley finally gave Brewer some breathing room by returning a punt 50 yards for a touchdown to make it 19-6 with 2:37 left in the third quarter. Kiley gathered in Zach Cowperthwaite’s punt at midfield near the far hashmark, then broke a tackle at the Bangor 40 before he crossed the field and racing untouched the rest of the way to the end zone.
Sophomore Anthony Chiappone’s 20-yard run wide left capped off an eight-play, 72-yard march on the Witches’ next possession to give Brewer a 26-6 lead with 10:07 left in the game. Chiappone’s 37-yard pass from Glidden set up the score, which Chiappone followed with his second extra-point kick of the game.
Lyon closed out the scoring for Bangor on a 4-yard run with 1:04 left in the game. He finished with a team-high 57 yards on nine rushes.
