NAUGATUCK -- A third quarter explosion by the Williamson High School Wolfpack football team spoiled homecoming for the Tug Valley Panthers, as the Pack won, 33-26, Friday night at Bob Brewer Stadium in Naugatuck.

The two teams played evenly throughout the first half, with Williamson holding a 13-12 lead at halftime.

The Wolfpack scored three unanswered touchdowns in the third quarter to put the game away, despite a rally in the fourth quarter by Tug Valley.

Williamson scored on its first possession of the second half when quarterback Chuckie White hit Nick Turner with a 71-yard scoring strike and Jarrid McCormick passed to Turner for the two-point conversion to break the game open. Williamson led 21-12 with 10:14 left in the third quarter.

A Tug Valley fumble recovered by Will Hale set up the Pack’s next score, a six-yard touchdown by Hale that made it 27-12 with 5:12 left in the third.

The Wolfpack then drove the final nail into the Panthers’ coffin when Matt Wellman punched in the three-yarder with 17 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Wolfpack a 33-12 lead.

The Panthers didn’t give up hope, though.

With 3:57 to go in the fourth quarter, Tug Valley quarterback Cody Varney hit Aaron Muncy with a 28-yard scoring pass and then completed the two-point conversion pass to Jeff Mullins to cut the WHS lead to 33-20.

Then, following a Williamson punt, Mullins rambled his way back into the end zone on a three-yard run to make it 33-26 with 45 seconds left in the game.

But, the Tug Valley rally was cut short when Williamon’s Jordan Cisco fell on the onsides kick to allow the Wolfpack to run out the final seconds of the game for the win.

“We went into halftime and we told our kids on the offensive line that if they would take over the game and be a little more physical, allow us to run the ball a little bit and set us up with some things and we could win the football game and we did,” Williamson Coach Doug Ward said. “We made some mistakes, but an ugly win is better than a pretty loss.

“We hit a couple of big plays. Nick Turner gives us a threat to touch it and go all the way. He’s probably the only guy we have who can do that. Chuck threw the ball real well and the guys stepped up and blocked. I think some of that was set up by the fact that we were able to run the ball some and they couldn’t stack everybody in there against us. The thing we haven’t had all year stepped up and won the game for us and that was to have some speed and to make some plays. The third-down catch Nick Lee made on our sidelines kept the drive alive to go down and go up two scores. That was huge for us.”

Tug Valley Coach Josh Duty said Williamson’s three scores in the third quarter was tough to overcome.

“We went into halftime with what was basically a tied ballgame and I told them that we had to win the third quarter and if we did, we’d be okay,” Duty said. “Give credit to Williamson. They came out with a nice game plan and caught us in a couple of miscues and got some quick scores on us. It was mental errors, a lot of lapses. I’m missing a few and I have a couple who were banged up and I didn’t want to push them too hard. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce your way. These kids have had a tough year.”

Coach Duty praised Tim Runyon for a good defensive performance.

“Tim Runyon played really hard on defense for us,” Duty said. “He had 10 tackles in the game.”

The Wolfpack took the early lead in the game when White passed to Nick Lee for the eight-yard touchdown that made it 6-0 early in the first quarter. Tug tied the game when Varney jumped over the pile into the end zone for a one-yard score with 2:04 left in the first period.

The Panthers then took their only lead of the game when Dustin Marcum zipped 18 yards to pay dirt to make it 12-6 early in the second quarter.

But, the Wolfpack took the lead for good when Wellman ran in the two-yard TD and Chris Hatcher booted the point after touchdown to make it 13-12 with 28 seconds to go before halftime. The TD was set up by a Turner interception.

White led the Wolfpack by completing 11-of-17 passes for 159 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran the ball three times for 24 yards. McCormick threw the only other pass for the Pack on the successful two-point conversion.

Turner caught two passes for 95 yards, including a 71-yard score. McCormick caught two passes for 32 yards. Justin Hensley caught four passes for 17 yards and Lee caught a pair of throws for 16 yards.

On the ground, Hale led with 73 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, while Wellman scored a pair of TDs and gained 55 yards on 13 carries. Cisco ran the ball three times for 14 yards and Hatcher carried the ball three times for 10 yards.

Turner and Israel Reynolds each picked off a Tug Valley pass, while McCormick and Hale each recovered a fumble.

The Pack punted the ball five times and fumbled it twice.

Tug Valley was led by Varney, who rushed 17 times for 73 yards and a touchdown.

In the air, he completed just 3-of-13 passes, but they were each for big gains and he finished with 132 yards, a touchdown and a two-point conversion. Mike Newsome completed 6-of-7 passes for 66 yards before getting banged up and leaving the game. Brandon Urban caught two passes for 104 yards. Marcum caught two passes for 29 yards. Muncy caught one pass for a 28-yard score, Varney caught three passes from Newsome for 20 yards, Chase Baisden caught a pass for a 17-yard gain and Mullins caught a two-point conversion toss.

On the ground, Mullins rushed eight times for 42 yards and a TD. Marcum ran the ball seven times for 23 yards and a touchdown. Ace Maynard ran the ball twice for seven yards.

Urban and Maynard each recovered a fumble.

The Panthers punted three times and fumbled the ball four times, losing two of those to Williamson.

Winless Tug Valley finishes its season Nov. 6 at Gilbert.

Williamson (4-5) travels Friday night to Valley Fayette for its season ending game.