Senior quarterback Cam Beal lines up under center against York. Beal threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

BRUNSWICK — It wasn’t the play that coach Mark Renna drew up, but it worked and gave Brunswick a 24-20 win over York in a Class C South football contest.

Down four points, 16 yards away from the goal line, with 23 seconds left in Saturday night’s game against York, Brunswick’s Cam Beal dropped back and surveyed the field. The senior quarterback stood cleanly in the pocket, but all of his options were covered. He noticed there was only one Wildcats linebacker in the box and decided it would be easiest to gain a few yards with his legs, call a timeout and try for a score the next play.

“I started scrambling around and I see this guy, ol’ reliable over here, just waving his big arms,” Beal said of Liam Scholl, who was streaking across the back of the end zone. “I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s wide (open), he’s wide (open).’ So I just let it go and put faith in him, and just trust the connection we have is pretty good.”

The connection worked out just fine. On the run with a York defender quickly closing in, Beal threw a pass that only the senior running back could reach. Scholl leapt up, grabbed the 16-yard pass out of the air, and gave the Dragons the go-ahead score with 11.6 seconds left. Beal ran in the subsequent 2-point conversion, putting Brunswick on top of York, 24-20.

“It was a team win,” Renna said. “At the timeout, in the huddle, those kids were just cool, calm and collected. They looked at me and I made the call. Cam made the play happen. It wasn’t how I called it, he’s just a gamer. He made the play.”

The final touchdown capped off a 15-play, six-minute and 20-second drive that began at the Brunswick 31-yard line after the Dragons (2-2) forced a turnover-on-downs, their third of the night.

Scholl’s game-winning catch was his second score of the evening — he also had a 24-yard catch in the corner of the end zone earlier in the fourth quarter — as he tallied nine receptions for 171 yards. Beal completed 19 of his 27 throws for 270 yards and two touchdowns, adding 19 yards on the ground.

“We knew York was going to be a tough opponent,” Scholl said. “Coming into the game, we knew we had to step up (our) game, so knowing that we were able to do that is really nice.”

York (1-3) led 20-8 heading into the final quarter.

After the Wildcats had a 60-yard run called back for penalty on the first play of the game, Brunswick’s Christian McMaster intercepted York’s next pass, returning it 34 yards for a score. On the Wildcats’ next drive, the Dragons forced and recovered a fumble. York, though, would force Brunswick to leave the field empty-handed and regain possession at its own 17-yard-line.

Senior quarterback Peter Martin (16 of 28, 295 yards, 2 TDs, INT) moved York down the field with two confident deep throws of 28 and 43 yards before finding senior tight end Lucas Ketchum in the end zone for a 14-yard score.

The Wildcats defense forced a Dragons three-and-out and quickly found themselves back in the end zone, this time on junior fullback Sam Jancovic’s 2-yard run. Martin missed a 28-yard field goal in the second quarter, but the visitors still went into the break with a 14-8 lead.

With two minutes left in the third quarter, York used a flea-flicker to JJ Luchette to jumpstart its offense and get the ball on the opposite side of the field. Three plays later, Martin found Jack Estes wide open in the end zone for a 27-yard pass that gave the Wildcats a 20-8 advantage.

“We’re on the cusp,” York head coach Matt Nelson said. “We’ve had three straight games that have been pretty much a one-possession game, and we’re right there on the cusp. Everybody’s got to learn from it. We’ve got to break through and that’s what our goal is for next week, is to break through on Cape (Elizabeth).”

York made one last attempt to break through Brunswick with a hook-and-ladder play, but their chance at a miracle play was snuffed out before reaching midfield.

“That second half, we came out and decided we wanted to take this game,” Beal said. “York played a hell of a game. Nothing on them, they played a great game. We just somehow ended up with the ball last. That’s all it takes really.”