BANGOR – After a scoreless first half in which his team had rushed for a grand total of 37 yards, Bangor coach Mark Hackett admits that the Rams made some adjustments.

He also admits that the most important change may not have been a switch of strategy. It may have been a change of mindset.

“I think Buddy just decided he was gonna be a tailback and he was gonna win the game for us if he had to do it all himself,” Hackett said after his Rams had surged to a 21-6 win over the pesky Tigers. Bangor is 2-0 while Gardiner dropped to 0-2.

“Of course, the line has to block. But Buddy just stepped it up a little bit,” he said.

Buddy is Buddy Nickerson, the Rams senior tailback. And “stepping it up a little bit” might be a conservative assessment.

Nickerson bounced back from a seven-carry, 26-yard first-half nightmare by pinballing his way to 116 tough yards after intermission.

Nickerson lugged the ball 20 times in the second half and finished with 142 yards and two touchdowns.

Nickerson said a little bit of communication between him and the Rams offensive line paid off.

“It was really a game-time situation,” Nickerson said, drawing a distinction between decisions made on a chalkboard and those made in the heat of a game.

“I’d talk to the O-line and say, ‘Where are the holes opening up,’ and they’d tell me.”

Nickerson carried the ball six times for 31 yards on Bangor’s first possession of the second half and capped a 10-play, 55-yard drive by barging into the end zone from five yards out with 5:52 to go.

That TD broke a scoreless tie and set the tone for the rest of the game.

After a three-and-out series for the Tigers, Nickerson got back to work, accounting for all 44 yards on another scoring drive. The big play was a 29-yard scamper that took the ball to the Gardiner-6.

He plunged in from the two, and Nick Achorn’s second of three PAT kicks split the posts for a 14-0 Bangor lead at the 2:22 mark.

The Rams made it 21-0 late in the fourth, as quarterback Chris Bombardier zipped a 10-yard strike to Mike Prentiss with 1:25 to go in the game.

Gardiner capped a frantic 81-yard drive by scoring on the game’s final play – a Jordan Stebbins-to-Kris Ramsay pass.

The Tigers drove the ball more effectively than Bangor in the first half, thanks largely to the efforts of sophomore tailback Joe Merrill, who finished the game with 109 yards on 26 carries.

Merrill sat out last week’s opener with chronic back pain and didn’t touch the ball until late in the first quarter.

“Tonight he was scheduled to get about 10 plays,” Gardiner coach Matt Brown said. “He felt fine and was running hard, so we stuck with him.”

Bombardier helped hold the Tigers. He finished with a 40.0-yard average on five punts and intercepted a Stebbins pass on the B-7 with 17 seconds to go in the half.

Cornerback Zac Ray also came up with a big play when he stunted on a third-and-3 on the B-11 late in the first period. He dropped Merrill for a five-yard loss and Gardiner missed a 33-yard field goal attempt.

RAMS 21, TIGERS 6

Gardiner (0-2) 0 0 0 6 ? 6

Bangor (2-0) 0 0 14 7 ? 21

B?Nickerson 5 run (Achorn kick)

B?Nickerson 2 run (Achorn kick)

B?Prentiss 10 pass from Bombardier (Achorn kick)

G?Ramsay 6 pass from Stebbins (no conversion try)

Gardiner Bangor

First downs 9 15

Rushing att.-yards 44-144 41-198

Passing comp.-att. 4-10 6-14

Passing yards 62 48

Total yards 206 246

Punts-avg. 7-30.0 5-40.0

Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-2

Intercepted by 0 1

Penalties-yards 2-15 5-40

Rushing

Gardiner: Munzing 2-2, Folckemer 2-2, Gero 3-6, C. Merrill 7-15, J. Merrill 26-109, Stebbins 3-13, Ramsay 1- -3; Bangor: Nickerson 27-142, Bombardier 6-16, Schmersal 2-18, Huhn 4-11, Blier 2-11

Passing

Gardiner: Stebbins 4-10-62; Bangor: Bombardier 6-14-48

Receiving

Gardiner: Mosher 1-1, Cloutier 1-23, Antongnoni 1-32, Ramsay 1-6; Bangor: Ray 1-12, Schmersal 1- -3, Prentiss 3-26, Flynn 1-13

A?1,000 (est.)