BRUNSWICK — Tyler Nadeau didn’t sugarcoat it. Just before he made the most important play of the game Friday night for the Brunswick High defense, Nadeau thought he was beat.
“Honestly, I played that really bad, because he ran by me and I didn’t pick up on it,” Nadeau said. “For some reason, the guy throwing the ball held it a second and I recovered.”
The play was a fullback pass, and Nadeau picked off the Alex Higgins throw at the Brunswick 45 with just over two minutes to play and returned it to the Lawrence 47. From there, the Dragons ran out the clock to finish off a 14-10 win in the Class B North championship game.
Brunswick (8-3) will face either Marshwood or Kennebunk in the state championship game next Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland. It’ll be the fourth state final in five years for the Dragons, who won the state championship in 2016.
Lawrence ends the season at 6-5.
Brunswick trailed 10-7 after one quarter, and it stayed that way until the fourth, when the Dragons put together an eight-play, 68-yard scoring drive.
Quarterback Noah Goddard scored on a keeper on second and goal from the 1 with 7:44 to play, giving the Dragons the lead.
Lawrence moved to the Brunswick 28 on the ensuing possession but lost the ball on downs with 3:02 remaining. After forcing the Dragons to punt with 2:37 left, Lawrence got the ball back at its own 36, but Nadeau’s pick on the first play of the drive ended the Bulldogs’ last chance.
“We made a lot of progress from when we faced them a month ago,” Lawrence Coach John Hersom said.
Brunswick beat Lawrence 55-28 in the regular season, but didn’t have the same success moving the ball this time around. After scoring on the third play of the game – a 76-yard touchdown run by Jack Harvey – Brunswick’s offense stalled until the go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter.
Brunswick Coach Dan Cooper said Lawrence outplayed his team up front for most of the first half. “They were just a lot more physical than us,” Cooper said.
After falling behind quickly, Lawrence answered on its first drive. Higgins caught a 13-yard pass from Dylan Coombs with 7:39 left in the first quarter.
The Bulldogs took a 10-7 lead with 17 seconds left in the quarter when Christian Adams made a 33-yard field goal.
The Lawrence running trio of Kyle Carpenter (99 yards), Paul Morneau (93 yards) and Higgins (89 yards) had success, but the Bulldogs didn’t score again.
Mitch Lienert led Brunswick with 170 yards rushing, including a 49-yard run on the go-ahead drive in the fourth.
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