BIDDEFORD — Alex Rose was so bent on keeping his promise, he did it twice.

Rose intercepted two passes in the final 2:47 to preserve the West’s 16-13 victory over the East in the 22nd annual Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic before about 3,000 fans at a sweltering Waterhouse Field on Saturday.

Net proceeds from the annual high school senior all-star game go to the Shriners Hospitals for Children. The West now leads the all-time series 16-6. The East had won two in a row and four of the previous five games.

“Eddie Warren (a Shriners Hospital patient who played in last year’s game for the West) told us the West had lost two years in a row and he wanted a ‘W,'” Rose said. “I walked up to him as everyone was running off and shook his hand and said, ‘I promise you we’ll come out with a ‘W.’ I promise you, Eddie.'”

Rose, the last football player from Livermore Falls High School before it merges athletic programs with Jay, had help delivering his promise from Portland running back Imadhi Zagon, who scored two touchdowns. The West MVP’s 86-yard kickoff return with 4:20 remaining proved to be the winning touchdown.

The East had just taken the lead on a 3-yard TD run by Edward Little’s Teven Colon, who was named the East MVP.

Rose’s first interception was a leaping grab in which he had to outwrestle Lewiston’s Jeff Keene for the ball in front of the East sideline.

“I looked over at my safety and told him I felt a big play coming,” Rose said. “I dropped back and I remember (Keene) going, so I turned back and sprinted. I looked back, and the ball was in the air, and I just jumped up. I remember his hands coming on the ball and I just reached down and I came up with it.”

The East got the ball back, however, after Kyle Bishop of Waterville stopped Zagon a yard short of a first down on 4th-and-3 at the East 34 with 1:40 remaining. But on its first play, Rose stepped in front of a pass by Bangor’s Joe Seccareccia for his second pick, which allowed the West to run out the clock.

“We had a little bit of a miscommunication on that play,” said East coach Mike Hathaway of Leavitt. “We were talking about a play we were going to run later in the series that we thought might go really well, but we wanted to get the ball on the other hash (mark) first. We had a little mix-up and the receiver was running one route and the quarterback was throwing to another.”

The temperature on the field for the late-afternoon kickoff was in the mid-90s, with the heat index reaching triple digits. To beat the heat, each quarter was cut back from 15 minutes to 12, and players were given a mandatory water break every four minutes off the game clock. Even the cheerleaders’ halftime show was cut in half as a precaution.

Despite the heat, both offenses had some trouble getting warmed up. A year after the East and West combined for the highest-scoring game in Lobster Bowl history (75 points), each team collected just five first downs and combined for 264 total yards in the first half.

The East had its best drive of the first half the first time it had the ball, driving 56 yards in seven plays. On 4th-and-5, Seccareccia hit Lani Eversage of Belfast for a 29-yard TD pass. Leavitt’s Max Cloutier kicked the extra point to make it 7-0.

The East held the West to just 57 net yards rushing for the game and sacked West quarterbacks three times and forced two turnovers.

“I felt our defensive line was a little tougher than their ‘O’ line,” said East defensive tackle Elliot Chicoine of Lewiston. “I think we got after it. They didn’t really run down the middle at all.”

But five turnovers and two bad shotgun snaps ultimately doomed the East. The first bad snap went over the head of Cony QB Luke Duncklee and out of the back of the end zone for a safety, giving the East its first points with 6:49 left in the first half.

“We hung in the second quarter and started to turn things around. I thought that safety was huge,” said West coach Jim Aylward of Mountain Valley. “It was a momentum-turner, because we really hadn’t done anything to deserve anything up until then.”

The West returned the ensuing free kick to the East 47 and made the most of the good field position, taking just five plays to score the go-ahead touchdown. That came on a 4th-and-inches carry by Zagon (seven carries, 65 yards), who ran a sweep around the right side 27 yards to the end zone to give the West a 9-7 lead it took into halftime.

The East’s second bad snap cost it a golden opportunity to take the lead in the third quarter. It came on 2nd-and-goal at the 1, resulting in a 29-yard loss.

A perfect balance of passes by Duncklee and runs by Duncklee and Colon (13 carries, 58 yards) took the East 60 yards in 11 plays on its first possession of the fourth quarter. Colon got the call on the final three plays, scoring off left tackle with 4:36 remaining.

“All week long it’s been (Bangor running back) Josiah Hartley (near the goal-line) but I told coach, ‘I’m feeling good,’ and he put me in. And we ran it down their throat,” Colon said.

Leading 13-9, the East had two cracks at a two-point conversion after Rose was called for a pass interference on its first attempt. But Christian Durland of Mountain Valley led the middle of the West defense in stopping Hartley near the goal line to give the West a boost for the ensuing kickoff.

The East coaching staff told Seccareccia to kick away from Zagon, but Zagon and fellow returner Spencer Ross of Dirigo lined up in such a way that the East could only guess where to direct the kick.

“I knew they were going to kick away from me so the coach called over to us from the sideline and told us to line up one behind the other and whichever way he kicks it, just go to it,” Zagon said.  “I just ran as hard as I could.”

Zagon ran into a pile of West defenders at about the 40, appeared to be stopped but kept his legs churning to bust through and down the right sideline for what proved to be the game-winning TD.

All that was left was for Rose to preserve the victory.

“It’s probably been one of the best experiences of my entire life, and it’s been one of the best causes ever,” Rose said. “I love playing for something I know that I can give back to the community.”