Groton — Several Waterford High School seniors stood in front of the still illuminated scoreboard at Dorr Field Friday night, holding up three fingers. Yes. This is the only number that counts today for Lancer Nation.

Three.

Three wins, no losses. For the first time since 2004.

And while assistant coach Mike Strecker might have correctly summarized the angst that came with win No. 3 — "they're killing me," he said playfully after the game — Waterford withstood a furious rally and defeated Fitch 35-26 to remain unbeaten into a bye week.

The Lancers nearly blew all of a 28-0 lead, but hung on by an eyelash for a happy bus ride home.

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Quarterback Spencer Hoagland ran for four touchdowns – 30, 74, 30 and 32 yards, finishing with 195 yards rushing and 118 passing. His final touchdown with a little more than six minutes left gave the Lancers a 35-20 lead and some room to exhale, after 20 straight Fitch points.

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"It crossed my mind," Hoagland said, alluding to a complete meltdown, "but the difference with this team is we have the heart. We just aren't going to quit."

Waterford's 28-0 lead came alarmingly easy. It was 28-0 at halftime.

Suddenly it was 28-20 and Fitch was driving in the fourth quarter.

"When you get up 28-0, you get a little conservative," Waterford coach John Strecker said. "Mike (Ellis) is a good coach. He knows what he's doing. They took things away. We weren't running Spencer. But when we got back to it, we were OK."

Waterford's third unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with seven minutes left gave Fitch a first down at the Waterford 25, trailing 28-20. Next play: fumble. Hoagland scored shortly thereafter.

Three key Fitch players missed all or most of the first half because of what Ellis called disciplinary and illness issues.

"Like my dad (assistant coach Mike Ellis Sr.) said, the kids grew up in the second half," Ellis said. "It wasn't like we came in here and made these monumental adjustments. We just played. Started to understand things better. But I have no idea why we started the game like that."

Tyler Nelli scored twice for Fitch, The Falcons (1-3) also scored on option passes from Hamear Stephens to Tony Figueroa and Zach Letellier from Cleon McLish.

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Stephens led Fitch with 113 rushing yards.

Luke Barrs had a 60-yard touchdown run for Waterford, which has a bye next week. Its next game is against Ledyard Oct. 14.

m.dimauro@theday.com