AUBURN — Windham’s defense bent but didn’t break.

Edward Little drove downfield late in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles made a fourth-down stop at their 27-yard line to clinch a 20-14 win over the Red Eddies in a Class A North football game Friday night.

“We had to stand our ground, we couldn’t give up,” Windham linebacker/running back Parker Sperry said. “They came back a little bit, we had to stand our ground.”

The key play of the drive came on third down, when Red Eddies quarterback TJ Kramarz was stopped at the Eagles’ 21. He was hurt on the play, as was Windham’s Ethan Nguyen, who made the tackle.

With Kramarz on the sideline, Hunter Baker took the snap on fourth down and tried to extend the play as long as he could with his legs, but ended up taking a 6-yard loss, and the Red Eddies turned the ball over on downs with 1:33 left in the game.

Edward Little coach Rich Kramer said he considered using the Eddies’ final timeout before the fourth-down play.

“We were thinking about it. There wasn’t any confusion, we knew what we were going to do,” Kramer said. “The play didn’t go as we expected it to go. This wasn’t the pivotal play of the game; it happened at a pivotal time. There were a ton of plays that were pivotal.”

Earlier in the second half, it appeared Windham (2-4) was going to pull away when it scored two third-quarter touchdowns to break a 6-6 halftime tie.

The Eagles started the second half by feeding the ball to Sperry, who carried the ball eight times and gained all 70 yards on a 10-play drive that he capped with a 13-yard scamper into the end zone that gave Windham a 13-6 lead.

Sperry finished with 162 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries.

His longest run on that possession was a 24-yard gain on third-and-10 from the Eagles’ 47. It was one of many third-down conversions by Windham.

“It gave the team confidence,” Windham quarterback Karl Longstreth said. “We have been working on third downs all year. We keep our head down and keep pushing.”

Kramer said the Red Eddies (1-5) were facing Longstreth, a junior quarterback, with a young secondary.

“People don’t understand the kids we have and how resilient they are,” Kramer said. “We played majority of our JV defensive backfield tonight. We had three starters out in the defensive backfield. Everyone can say, ‘Hey, you can’t stop the long pass.’ I was happy it was third-and-10. If we are getting in third-and-10, we are doing our job.”

Edward Little quarterback TJ Kramarz launches a long pass on a flea-flicker that resulted in the first touchdown of during Friday night’s game against Windham in Auburn. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Following an Edward Little three-and-out, Longstreth ran down the Red Eddies’ sideline 67 yards into the end zone to give the Eagles a 20-6 lead with 5:24 to play in the third quarter.

“I just followed my guys up front,” Longstreth said. “Coaches have been wanting me to run the ball all year, and we really haven’t had the chance to do it. Last week I broke for 80 yards and they said, ‘OK,’ and we called the play again.”

Longstreth finished with 69 yards rushing on nine carries. He also completed 5 of 8 passes for 58 yards.

Edward Little battled back when Kramarz led the offense down the field on a 12-play drive, on which he threw for 21 yards and ran for another 37. He muscled into the end zone on a 15-yard run and added the 2-point conversion to cut the deficit to 20-14 with 10:58 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“TJ wasn’t going to get those runs without great blocking, and we had great blocking tonight,” Kramer said. “I have to hand it to the blockers, they are the ones who made the holes happen.”

Kramarz completed 12 of 16 passes for 159 yards and ran the ball 13 times for 70 yards.

Both offenses took time to get going Friday.

After a scoreless first quarter, Edward Little started the second period with a bang. Windham crossed midfield on a 20-yard run by Longstreth, but on the next play, the Red Eddies forced a fumble that Caden Freeman recovered a fumble at their own 45.

On Edward Little’s next play, Kramarz took a flea flicker pitch from Evan Madigan then connected with Baker for a 55-yard touchdown pass with 11:06 remaining for a 6-0 lead.

“That was a great play; we practiced it this week, and the kids had a little fun with it in practice,” Kramer said. “The opportunity arose in the game to call it, and we called it and they did a great job.”

Late in the second quarter, after Windham converted on a fourth down, Adrian Moody ran 19 yards to Edward Little’s 19 and Longstreth found a Moody for 18-yard pass to the 1-yard line. Sperry’s 1-yard TD run tied the game 6-6 with 3:06 left in the half.

Edward Little appeared to recover a fumble on a punt with 14 seconds remaining, but was called for holding. Windham took two shots at the end zone before the end of the half, but both attempts were incomplete.