FARMINGTON – Caldwell Field in Farmington is normally an unfriendly place for opposing football players, but Mike Prentiss found a pal in Hurricane Isabel on Friday night.

“I loved it,” said Prentiss. “It started raining as soon as we started playing, and it ended as soon as we got done.”

In between, the Bangor senior tailback thrived amid the remnants of that storm, rushing for 326 yards and four touchdowns on 39 carries as the Rams overpowered host Mt. Blue 29-7 in a Pine Tree Conference matchup.

“Mike’s a proud kid, and tonight he just carried us,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett.

Prentiss is the first Bangor back to eclipse the 300-yard mark since Hampton Clarkson rushed for 307 on 50 carries in a win over Cony five years ago.

Prentiss rushed for 225 yards in the first half alone – including two runs of 46 yards and a 61-yard touchdown jaunt – as Bangor built a 20-7 lead. He added 101 yards during a second half in which the Rams kept the ball for 19 minutes, 35 seconds of a possible 24 minutes.

Consider some of that Bangor’s response to a frustrating 6-0 loss to Cheverus a week ago.

“Bangor’s got a lot of pride, and these guys are used to winning,” said Hackett, whose club is now 2-1 and faces Skowhegan next Friday night. “It wasn’t a fun week at Bangor this week, but tonight was more like the teams Bangor’s put out on the field before.”

The Rams amassed 477 yards of total offense, including 404 rushing yards on 60 tries.

Tyler Heber added 55 rushing yards on 10 carries as Bangor dominated the game at the line of scrimmage behind the blocking of Ricky Dexter, Trevor Lagrange, Eric Anderson, Danny Day, Kyle Oliver and fullback Ben Payson.

“The line just went all out, and they know what they’re doing,” said Prentiss. “I just run behind them.”

Senior quarterback Shaun Sullivan complemented the ground game by completing 7 of 15 passes for 73 yards and executing some high-quality play fakes on several draw plays that Prentiss turned into big gains.

Mt. Blue, which had scored 68 points while splitting its first two games, mustered just 127 total yards. Once the Cougars got behind, their shotgun offense had difficulty generating a passing attack while battling both the elements and the Bangor defense.

Tailback Lance Meader, who rushed for more than 300 yards in the Cougars’ first two games, was held to 44 yards on 16 carries. Quarterback Garrett Lake completed just 4 of 12 passes for 35 yards.

“We went with a different scheme,” said Hackett, “and the linemen stopped the trap, the linebackers stopped the sweep, and the secondary did a good enough job on the pass that we held them to seven points.”

Bangor scored on its first two possessions for a quick 14-0 lead. Prentiss scored from 1 yard out to cap a 68-yard march, then found a big hole off right tackle for his 61-yard touchdown run with 4:42 left in the opening quarter.

Mt. Blue closed within 14-7 on a 3-yard run by Meader with 6:35 left in the half. The 11-play, 83-yard drive featured a 34-yard pass from Lake to Pete Tinguely, as well as a fourth-down pass interference penalty against Bangor that gave the Cougars first-and-goal at the 3.

Bangor took a 20-7 lead into the break, as Prentiss scored from 2 yards out with 49 seconds left in the first half. The extra-point try fell victim to a rain-induced bad snap.

The Rams then marched 67 yards 14 plays after receiving the second-half kickoff, a 7:08 drive capped off by Jordan Heath’s first career field goal from 21 yards out.

Mt. Blue responded by driving to the Bangor 12 before Oliver tackled Andrew Beaulieu for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-4. Bangor then embarked on another time-consuming march, this one eating 7:21 off the clock before Prentiss took a Sullivan pitch and scored from 10-yards out with 6:36 left in the game.

“This was definitely a confidence booster,” said Prentiss. “We learned what it was like to lose last week, and we don’t want to do it again.”

RAMS 29, COUGARS 7

Bangor (2-1) 14 6 3 6 ? 29

Mt. Blue (1-2) 0 7 0 0 ? 7

B?Prentiss 1 run (Heath kick)

B?Prentiss 61 run (Heath kick)

MB?Meader 3 run (Plancon kick)

B?Prentiss 2 run (kick failed)

B?Heath 21 field goal

B?Prentiss 10 run (pass failed)

Bangor Mt. Blue

First downs 21 8

Rushing att.-yards 60-404 26-92

Passing comp.-att. 7-15 4-12

Passing yards 73 35

Total yards 477 127

Punts-avg. 1-43.0 5-34.3

Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-1

Intercepted by 0 0

Penalties-yards 7-66 0-0

Rushing

Bangor: Prentiss 39-326, Heber 10-55, B. Payson 9-27, N. Payson 1-3, Sullivan 1-(minus 7); Mt. Blue: Meader 16-44, Beaulieu 3-26, Taber 3-15, Stevens 3-13, Lake 1-(minus 6)

Passing

Bangor: Sullivan 7-15-0-73; Mt. Blue: Lake 4-12-0-35

Receiving

Bangor: DeRosa 5-50, Heber 1-14, Cassidy 1-9; Mt. Blue: Tinguely 1-34, Hardy 1-1, Beaulieu 2-0

A?850 (est.)