With 10 minutes to go in the third quarter Friday, Westbrook’s football team was in position to tie the score against visiting Bonny Eagle and possibly pull off the biggest upset of the season.

On third down the Blue Blazes offense lined up at their opponents’ 11-yard-line, needing only a foot for a first down, but a yellow penalty flag halted play – and quickly changed the complexion of the game.

“If we got that first down we had them on the ropes. We could’ve punched it in,” Westbrook coach Jason McLeod said. “We had the sneak called, but we just took too long in the huddle. That was a big momentum change.”

The delay of game call against the Blazes – ironic in a contest in which the Scots were repeatedly penalized – was immediately followed by an 11-yard loss and an interception. Up to that point, Westbrook (2-3) had prevented the defending state champions from scoring in five of their first seven possessions, but Bonny Eagle (4-1) found the end zone on the next three, and went on to win, 35-14.

The path to victory, however, didn’t please Scots coach Kevin Cooper.

“I’m not very happy with how we played. We don’t seem to be correcting the mistakes that we’ve been making, and it’s kind of disappointing,” he said. “We’ve got some good, talented kids, and when they want to play we look pretty good.”

One of the sources of Cooper’s disappointment was penalties. Bonny Eagle drew 14 flags from the officials, costing the team 100 yards.

“Unfortunately, it’s been typical of us,” the coach said. “You take out the penalties and it’s a different game. We had a couple drives where we had two procedure penalties in the same drive, and we can’t keep making up for those penalties.”

The Scots forced their hosts to punt in their first two possessions. Then quarterback Mike O’Donnell hit Chase Murray on a 30-yard pass to set up a 15-yard touchdown run on a QB keeper during his squad’s second drive.

When the Blazes got the ball back they didn’t score, but they were able to get a couple of first downs and to move from their own 27 deep into Bonny Eagle territory. That drive, which featured a 26-yard run by Shawn Coffill (23 carries, 72 yards) and a 23-yard pass from Adam Hamilton to David Quigley (3 catches, 83 yards), seemed to give the underdogs some confidence.

After holding the Scots to three-and-out, Westbrook came back down the field, using a pretty reverse from Hamilton to Coffill to Brandon Robbins to gain 16 yards and then scoring on Coffill’s 20-yard scamper.

“We rode (Coffill’s) back as much as we could,” McLeod said. “He plays bigger than he is. He’s going to get those tough yards.”

O’Donnell slipped through the line and dashed 66 yards on the very next play from scrimmage, giving his team a 14-7 lead, but Bonny Eagle couldn’t get much going offensively on their next three possessions, into the first two minutes of the second half.

All-state running back John Wiechman, who sat out the first quarter, had only run for a net three yards on five carries to that point, far below his usual dozen or so yards per carry.

But then came the delay of game call and suddenly everything shifted. Seconds later, Wiechman blitzed from the linebacker spot and dropped Hamilton for a loss, and on the next play the Blazes’ QB was picked off.

A 38-yard run by O’Donnell (14 carries, 209 yards) was followed by a 48-yard TD run by Wiechman (13 carries, 118 yards), the counter play working to perfection.

O’Donnell (4-for-9, 90 yards) went to the air on the next drive, hitting Anthony Atkins for a gain of 45 and then Murray for a five-yard score. A fourth quarter drive resulted in a five-yard TD run for Neil Patnaude.

In the game’s waning seconds, Hamilton (8-for-14, 155 yards) connected with Peter Dore, who took off down the right sideline, scoring on the 50-yard pass play.

The Scots may have won, but coming off a state title and with big games coming up against Deering (Oct. 14) and Gorham (Oct. 21), they would expect to fare better against a team that was 1-7 last season.

“We’re winning and that’s good, but that’s not enough for us,” said O’Donnell. “We want to dominate games. We can’t be a second-half team. We don’t settle for stuff like that.”

As for Westbrook, which travels to Gorham Friday, there was a lot to be pleased about.

“We definitely overachieved,” said McLeod. “We took advantage of some of Bonny Eagle’s mistakes. They’re a good team, and we have nothing to hang our heads about.”