BIDDEFORD — The East went from thinking it could build a nice comfortable cushion early in the 23rd Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic to watching the walls come tumbling down.

A demolition crew known as the West’s defensive line had a lot to do with it.

The West sacked East quarterbacks six times and held the East to just eight points in the final 43 minutes Saturday to rally from a 16-6 deficit and pull away for a 48-24 victory at Waterhouse Field.

It was the second consecutive win for the West, which now leads the series, 17-6, all time.

Cheverus’ Spencer Cooke was named the Most Outstanding Player for the West after rushing 13 times for 113 yards and a touchdown and recovering a fumble. Wells quarterback Paul McDonough threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. Messalonskee’s Sam Dexter earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the East. He caught eight passes for 81 yards and a touchdown.

The game turned in the second quarter, when the West’s defensive front started pressuring East quarterbacks Jordan Hersom of Leavitt (7 for 14, 72 yards, TD) and Deven Romain of John Bapst (12 for 31, 174 yards, 3 INTs). Sacks by Andrew Lavallee of Cape Elizabeth and Bonny Eagle’s Curtis LaBelle, a forced fumble, and an interception by Lisbon’s Zach Splude helped the West turn a 10-point deficit into a 10-point lead by halftime.

“We just did what the coaches told us to do all week,” said LaBelle, a defensive end. “We did hand movement and kept their hands off us. Lavallee, he’s a monster. He’s 312 (pounds) I think he said, and he just pushes people around.”

“We had some miscues, some misreads and some letdowns, stuff like that,” said East wide receiver Jake Ouellette of Leavitt, who was named one of the John R. Schmidlin Award winners as Outstanding Player in Class B and will attend Norwich University in the fall. “But I’m proud of all the guys. There’s nothing to be not proud of. We had a great week of camp, made a lot of friends, and bonded with a ton of guys.”

They also raised a lot of money for the Shriners’ Hospitals, which benefits from the proceeds of the game. Players, coaches and cheerleaders combined to raise a record $73,000.

Lewiston’s Jeff Turcotte led the East with 13 carries for 53 yards and a touchdown that helped the East build its 16-6 lead early in the second quarter.

“I’m not going to forget this,” said Turcotte, who is headed to Hebron Academy. “It’s a great organization that we did this for. We met great people along the way, had some great hospitality, but at the same time, I made friendships with kids that I never thought I would be on the same team with.”

That team looked unbeatable for a while, scoring on the game’s opening drive on an 18-yard pass from Hersom to Dexter. After the West pulled within two on an 8-yard TD run by Cheverus QB Cam Olson (seven carries, 72 yards, 169 yards passing, TD, 3 INTs), Turcotte scored from a yard out and Hersom connected with Bapst’s Max Andrews for the two-point pass that made it 16-6.

The first half featured 46 pass attempts between the two teams, but the West went to the ground exclusively on a 5-play, 57-yard drive that started a run of 26 unanswered points. Scott Thibeault of Scarborough made it 16-14 with a three-yard run a little over three minutes into the second quarter.

Turnovers on the East’s next two possessions helped set up a pair of touchdown passes by McDonough (7 for 16, 130 yards, 2 TDs) that put the West in front for good. The first went for 26 yards to Marshwood’s Troy Pappas, the second for 51 yards to Matthew Burnell of Bonny Eagle, and the West took a 26-16 lead into halftime.

“People don’t understand,  Paul’s foot is still awful,” said West head coach Joel Stoneton of Winthrop, referring to a broken foot McDonough sustained late last fall. “He had to sit (Friday) because of his foot. He couldn’t even put pressure on it. And he went out and got it done.”

The West punted to open the second half but the East fumbled an attempted reverse on the return, which Cooke recovered. That set up a nine-yard TD pass from Olson to Cameron Cooper of Bonny Eagle that put the West up 32-16.

LaBelle, Lavallee and company kept up the pressure in the second half while the West’s secondary, led by Splude and Oak Hill’s Cody Depuy, kept East receivers in close coverage to force the quarterbacks to hold the ball.

“We stayed right in a base defense the whole game and watched where the ball was going, stayed home and tackled them when they caught it,” said Depuy, who was a Schmidlin Award finalist in Class C and is headed to Endicott. “We stayed in our zones and shut them down.”

A 12-men on the field penalty by the West helped the East sustain its last scoring drive, capped by a nine-yard run by Brewer’s Anthony Jackson to make it 32-24 with 17 seconds left in the third. But the West answered with a one-yard run by McDonough on its ensuing possession and Logan Gaddar of South Portland snuffed the East’s rally with an interception at the West 11 with 2:13 remaining.

Bill Calden of Spruce Mountain had a two-point conversion catch and Dirigo’s Jake Dowland intercepted a pass late for the West. Alphonso Belnavis of Edward Little caught three passes for 68 yards for the East.