AUBURN – It was an ugly start to a beautiful effort by the Bangor Rams on a clear, pleasant Friday night as they wound up their preseason with a 31-0 victory over Edward Little, one of the three new kids on the Pine Tree Conference block this season.

Bangor began the game by fumbling the opening kickoff and giving the Red Eddies possession at the Rams’ 42-yard line. The Eddies drove to the B-29 before Bangor’s defensive line started heating up.

The first one to feel the heat was E.L. quarterback Jeff St. Pierre, who was bowled over like a tenpin when Rams’ tackle J.J. Jackson slammed him down on the Walton Field turf for a sack and an 11-yard loss on a 2nd-and-7 play. The pressure came again and St. Pierre was forced into an incompletion, forcing E.L. to punt.

The opponents traded punts for the next six possessions before a 28-yard punt return by Bangor’s Chris Bombardier set the Rams up with a 1st-and-goal at the EL-9. Tailback Buddy Nickerson gained five through the left guard gap, D.J. Johnson grabbed two up the middle, and then Nickerson plowed through the left gap again for a two-yard touchdown run before Nick Achorn made the extra-point kick with 5:32 left in the first half.

A fumble recovery by Jackson gave the Rams a first down at the EL-30 with 41 seconds to play. Bombardier gained five on a quarterback option run, but two straight incompletions made it 4th-and-5 from the EL-25. Bangor went for it and flanker Justin Schmersal made the decision a good one by catching a 10-yard pass in the right flat. With three seconds left, Achorn trotted out, sized up the distance, and booted a 32-yard field goal to give Bangor a 10-0 halftime lead.

“This is the first real game and this is where it all starts basically,” Achorn said. “The offense and defense did a great job and it was nice being able to get in some kicks.”

With the second half belonging mostly to the second and third strings, Bangor’s superior depth became apparent, but not before the first unit added one more score. With 5:42 to play in the third quarter, a bad snap resulted in a nine-yard loss on a 4th-and-14 punt play for the Eddies. Bangor took over on the EL-6 and Nickerson took it in on back-to-back three-yard runs over the next 36 seconds.

Then it was time for the backups to shine as Bangor scored on its next two possessions with a six-play, 30-yard drive following a blocked EL punt and a two-yard, 58-yard drive keyed by Brewer transfer student Ryan Largay’s 53-yard TD burst down the visiting sideline with 10:25 left in the game.

As good as the offense played, it was defense that dominated as the Rams held the Eddies to 10 total yards – all coming on the ground over 39 carries. Bangor also had two sacks, helped force six fumbles, recovered two, had a blocked punt, and allowed no pass completions.

“Our defensive line played fantastic. D.J. came up with some great hits and we really came up with some big stops tonight,” said captain and two-way lineman Ben Guerette.

“I think the key to our whole team is offensive and defensive line and the kids certainly believe it,” said Bangor head coach Mark Hackett. “That showed tonight because we fumbled the opening kickoff and they were inside our 40 almost the whole quarter before we began to get more confidence and started pulling it together.”

Despite the glaring statistics, Eddies coach Gene King found a lot of things he liked during the course of the game.

“I’ll tell you right now, we didn’t have much of a showing last week against Lawrence, but if we didn’t give Bangor the ball inside the 10, it could have been scoreless at the half,” said King. “I think we played right through that first half with them and all reports we’ve had say they’re going to be one of the top dogs in the state.

“I’m not satisfied, I’m not happy, and we have some work to do, but we took a major step this week against a real good football team,” he said.

Rams 31, Red Eddies 0

Bangor 0 10 14 7?31

Edward Little 0 0 0 0? 0

B?Nickerson 2 run (Achorn kick)

B?Achorn 32 field goal

B?Nickerson 3 run (Achorn kick)

B?Heber 5 run (Achorn kick)

B?Largay 53 run (Achorn kick)

Bangor Edward Little

First downs 8 2

Rushing att.-yards 42-168 39-10

Passing comp.-att. 2-7 0-6

Passing yards 27 0

Total yards 195 10

Punts-avg. 5-33.2 9-23.3

Fumbles-lost 1-1 6-2

Intercepted by 0 1

Penalties-yards 4-45 5-25

Rushing

Bangor: Largay 5-75, Johnson 7-33, Johnson 7-33, Schmersal 3-24, Nickerson 10-19, Bombardier 6-12, Heber 4-8, Huhn 2-7, Robertson 1-3, Payson 1-2, Flynn 1-0, Jones 1-minus 3; Edward Little: Moody 6-17, Miller 10-12, Leclair 11-12, Jackson 2-minus 6, St. Pierre 3-minus 4, Flynn 7-minus 11

Passing

Bangor: Bombardier 2-7-27-1; Edward Little: St. Pierre 0-5-0-0, Bennett 0-1-0-0

Receiving

Bangor: Shain 1-17, Schmersal 1-10; Edward Little: none