Shrewsbury Town's veteran centre-forward and manager Jimmy Quinn stepped in at the eleventh hour to start only his first game of the season, and netted a brilliant a first-half goal.
But despite Town going repeatedly close throughout the game, Scarborough rallied dramatically in the last 20 minutes and found the equaliser through Mark Quayle.
Scarborough keeper Leigh Walker made a double save in the third minute, from Town's Sam Aiston and Jamie Tolley then minutes later Aiston had a great chance cleared by Lloyd Blackman.
There were further chances for the visitors from Quinn and Lee Bell as Shrewsbury continued to have the upper hand.
Their pressure paid off when Quinn, who stepped in when Luke Rodgers was unavailable through injury, seized his chance in turning out in only his third game of the season, when he finished off a free-kick put over from the edge of the box.
At the other end, Scott Kerr went close with a 25-yarder as Scarborough struggled to get back into the game before the break.
Shrewsbury were in buoyant form after the re-start when they hit the crossbar in a packed goalmouth from a Lowe corner, then Lowe set up a golden chance, but the ball was cleared desperately behind the goal.
Scarborough's Wayne Gill forced keeper Scott Howie to make a brave diving save at his feet and the incident was repeated seconds later.
Ugly scenes developed as tempers became frayed resulting in a chain of bookings.
Scarborough strove hard to get back into the game and almost succeeded through Matthew Redmile who went just inches wide of the upright, then substitute Chris Senior had an on-target chance blocked by the keeper.
Mark Hotte tried hard and almost succeeded when he shot through a ruck of players but Howie dived full length and smothered the ball.
The Seasiders eventually found the equaliser in the 74th minute when Quayle brilliantly banged the ball over Howie's head giving him no chance.
With ten minutes to go, Quinn went close to producing the winner when he shot just wide then Dave Ridler forced Walker to make a finger-tip save.
Scarborough found the net in injury time through Senior, but was ruled out for offside.