LEWISTON — Saturday’s donnybrook at Don Roux Field wasn’t complete until Steven Patrie batted Sean Ford’s desperation pass away from Quin Leary at midfield.

As endings go, it probably seemed innocuous and anticlimactic, but you’d be hard pressed to pen a more appropriate one.

Patrie’s one-game move from defensive end to something of a safety/linebacker hybrid for Lewiston completely stifled Ford, Leary and Edward Little’s potent passing attack. The 6-foot-5 senior’s handiwork was the hidden gem of Lewiston’s 21-14 win in the 170th Battle of the Bridge.

In addition to defending tight end Leary, Patrie was commissioned to keep EL tailback Johnny Boyd from rounding the corner.

How’d he do? No catches for Leary and a hard-earned 65 yards on 19 carries for Boyd.

“We marked me up with him and I had to stay with him the entire time,” Patrie said of Leary. “He’s one great player, oh man. That was our main key, to take him and Johnny out of the game.”

Both teams finished at 2-7, the first time since 2004 that each concluded below .500.

Lewiston avenged a loss in the preseason to win the Alan Clark Sr. Memorial Trophy for the second straight year and grab a 90-68-12 lead in the all-time series.

“It’s one of those games where if you can have some success, it carries into the weight room in the winter time and it carries into your summer program,” Lewiston coach Bill County said. “My first year here in 2000 we won our first and our last. The next year we were a playoff team. It does something for you.”

Patrie also caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Eddie Emerson in the first quarter, giving the young, beleaguered Devils a rare early lead and infusing them with a boatload of confidence.

Lewiston opened that margin to 21-6 on a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs from sophomore Stone Colby in the second half before EL rallied.

Sparked by Boyd’s 48-yard kickoff return and runs of 22 and 12 yards from Ford, EL needed less than two minutes to answer Colby’s second score with a 1-yard Boyd TD rush. Ford’s second effort produced the two-point conversion and trimmed the deficit to seven with 7:46 left.

EL then recovered Ford’s surprise onside kick for the second time on the afternoon, with Dan Williams emerging from the pile at the Lewiston 49. The ensuing drive reached the 18 before a holding penalty killed the momentum.

Ace Curry and Quintarian Brown converged to break up a third-down throw to Leary. Zach Phelan knocked down a ball ticketed for Ian Mileikis on fourth down.

“That’s the name of the game, if you can’t control the ball and control it when you have it,” EL coach Dave Sterling said. “It’s been a tough season, but these guys persevered. Some of the games these guys could have packed it in and we fought through it. When you go down 21-6, to fight to come back like that is pretty big.”

The Eddies appeared to stop the Devils deep in their own territory, but a 5-yard facemask gave Lewiston an extra crack at third down. Brown, who rushed for 142 of his 157 yards in the second half, cashed in with a 36-yard ramble.

Two plays later, Brown raced 33 more yards to produce first-and-goal at the 2. But on Brown’s next carry, Williams stripped the ball and Caleb Fecteau pounced to give EL a last-ditch opportunity.

“Even when we got the ball back with a minute and three seconds to go in the game, we still felt like they had it,” Sterling said. “That’s what the game is. You’ve got to fight until the end. Just like life, if you’re not fighting sometimes just to stay alive, it’s going to come back and bite you.”

Ford (16 carries, 85 yards) scrambled for 21 to give EL a glimmer of hope, but consecutive penalties for intentional grounding and an ineligible receiver essentially ended it.

“We basically sat back and waited for the pass,” senior middle linebacker Phelan said. “Our pass coverage was much better this game. Patrie was the key.”

Brown and Curry each had an interception for Lewiston, which gave up only one completion in the second half.

Ford was 4-for-19 overall, including a 26-yard TD to Mileikis in the second quarter. Jacob Kendall blocked the extra point to keep Lewiston’s halftime lead at 7-6.

“Zach Phelan was tremendous today at middle linebacker, and Steve Patrie, if he was at fullback gaining a bunch of yards, people would understand how good a football player he is,” County said.

Emerson was 5-for-5 for 118 yards through the air for the Devils. Curry caught three for 99, capped by a 38-yarder that led to Stone’s first TD with 7:58 to play in the third.

“We’re a young team. so once we go down one score the young kids kind of hang their heads,” Patrie said. “Today they finally figured out we can play with a lead, and that’s what we did the entire time. We held them.”

Colby and Tom Hird added sacks for the Lewiston defense, whose efforts helped terminate a seven-game losing streak, the program’s longest since 1998-99.

Emotions boiled over with a brief shoving match that shortened the initial post-game handshake.

After EL alum and former assistant coach Brad Sloat presented the Clark trophy and County and Sterling gave heartfelt speeches about the brotherhood of the ancient rivalry, players embraced and conversed at midfield.

“It was a little bit chippy, and part of that is the way the rivalry is supposed to be,” said County.

“It was a long season and we didn’t do as good as we should have,” Phelan added. “But it feels better after you beat the Eddies.”

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