BANGOR – Bangor’s climb toward the top of the Pine Tree Conference got considerably tougher Friday night, but the Rams’ crept ever closer to the pinnacle.

Bangor’s resilient defense kept Oxford Hills from penetrating the 25-yard line, thwarting the Vikings all night while posting a 13-0 PTC victory at Cameron Stadium.

The win by Coach Gabby Price’s Rams, now 6-1 overall and 5-0 in the PTC, sets up a pivotal league clash next Friday night at Gardiner, which has an identical record.

Bangor received its toughest league test of the season from the Vikings, now 4-3 and 3-2, respectively.

“We’re pretty proud of ourselves, since we shut out Oxford Hills,” said Bangor senior linebacker Kevin Dunton, who turned in a team-high 14 tackles. “It’s a great confidence booster for us, especially for our defense.”

The Rams’ physical style seemed to wear down Oxford Hills, which fumbled three times in the first half and couldn’t get its offense clicking.

“We’ve been putting points on the board. Over the last three weeks we’ve scored over a hundred points,” said Oxford Hills coach Ted Moccia. “They’re probably the best tackling team that we’ve faced this year.”

The Vikings turned in an outstanding defensive performance. Oxford Hills held in the first quarter after Bangor drove from its own 18-yard line to the OH 1.

On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Sid Edwards and Dana Hodgdon broke through and dropped Mike Cooper for a 2-yard loss.

However, the Bangor defense punished the Vikings in the first half. Richie Day buried Edwards with an open-field hit to force the first fumble, but the Shayne Bryan intercepted Day at the OH 7 on Bangor’s ensuing possession.

“We’ve got to realize that a team’s gonna get a couple yards and we’re learning to deal with that,” Day said. “We’ll give them a couple yards, but we make the plays when we need to.”

The Rams got the ball back 3 1/2 minutes later when Josh Morse recovered another Edwards fumble. Sparked by a 31-yard pass from Day to Mike Pelkey, Bangor went 53 yards on eight plays.

Day punched it in with a 4-yard option run and Andy Robichaud’s PAT kick made it 7-0 with 1:04 left in the first half.

Bangor pounded away with the run in the second half. The Rams’ varied repertoire kept the Vikes guessing, setting up a 14-yard scoring pass from Day to Jason St. Pierre with 11:55 to play.

“They play real tough on the corners,” Price said. “We had to run between the tackles, but our kids played great.”

The Vikings were able to nibble at the corners with quarterback Mike Loveless finding Bryan nine times, but Bangor snuffed out the run game and contained.

“I think they kind of took it to us a little bit up front in the second half, I give them lots of credit there,” Moccia said. “In the first half, we had the fumbles and the penalty bug, which cost us field position greatly.”

Oxford Hills’ best offensive threat of the game came on its final drive when it got to the B 27. However, the Rams held on fourth down with 18 seconds to play.

Bangor rushed for 172 yards, led by the hard-nosed running of fullback Morse, who carried 19 times for 78 yards. Morse and Tim Wright made 10 tackles each.

Wayne Millett paced OH with 13 tackles and Waylon Millett had 10.

Rams 13, Vikings 0

Oxford Hills 0 0 0 0 – 0

Bangor 0 7 0 6 – 13

B – Day 4 run (Robichaud kick)

B – St. Pierre 14 pass from Day (kick failed)

Oxford Hills Bangor

First downs 15 15 Rushing att. – yds 34-107 41-172 Passing cmp. – att. 13-22 3-6 Yards passing 97 70 Total yards 204 242 Intercepted by 1 1 Punts – avg. 2-41.0 2-27.0 Fumbles – lost 3-3 0-0 Penalties – yds 6-42 8-75

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Oxford Hills: S. Edwards 16-75, Loveless 7-12, Brackett 3-11, Gonzales 5-5, Hodgdon 3-4; Bangor: Morse 19-78, Day 7-37, Estey 5-27, Cooper 8-26, Pelkey 1-5, Catell (1-(-1)

PASSING – Oxford Hills: Loveless 13-22-1-97; Bangor: Day 3-6-1-70

RECEIVING – Oxford Hills: Bryan 9-64, Gonzales 2-29, S. Edwards 1-4, Truman 1-0; Bangor: Pelkey 1-31, O’Connell 1-25, St. Pierre 1-14

INTERCEPTIONS – Oxford Hills: Bryan; Bangor: Day

FUMBLE RECOVERIES – Bangor: Morse 2

Eagles 20, Lions 16

Messlnskee(7-0) 0 6 8 6 – 20

Belfast (6-1) 0 0 0 16 – 16

M – Williams 8 run (pass failed)

M – Rodrigue 12 run (Doucette rush)

B – King 3 run (King rush)

B – King 3 run (Bouchard pass from Gould)

M – Doucette 1 run (rush failed)

Messalonskee Belfast

First downs 7 12 Rushing att. – yds 41-111 43-181 Passing cmp. – att. 2-5 1-9 Yards passing 34 12 Total yards 145 193 Intercepted by 4 0 Punts – avg. 4-27 1-22 Fumbles – lost 4-2 1-1 Penalties – yds 9-60 6-40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Messalonskee: Williams 17-64, B. Rodrigue 10-49, Bragg 5-1, Doucette 9-(-3); Belfast: King 28-120, J. Littlefield 7-50, Bouchard 2-13, Gould 6-(-2)

PASSING – Messalonskee: Doucette 2-5-0-34; Belfast: Gould 1-9-4-12

RECEIVING – Messalonskee: B. Rodrigue 1-16, Pilsbury 1-18; Belfast: Bowden 1-12

INTERCEPTIONS BY – Messalonskee: B. Rodrigue 2, Makowski, Pierce

FUMBLES RECOVERED BY – Messalonskee: King; Belfast: Berry, Bryant