Kick game pins Ram foes deep Barron, Vanidestine important in 2-0 start

BANGOR – The Bangor High football team is off to a 2-0 start this season thanks to a big, aggressive line, some talented backs and special teams that have given the Rams a major kick-start.

In junior place-kicker Tyson Barron and senior punter T.J. Vanidestine, Bangor has been able to win the battle of field position in victories over Edward Little of Auburn and Cheverus of Portland.

Barron, who played freshman football but switched to soccer as a sophomore, has been booming his kickoffs through the first two weeks of play regardless of whether he has had the wind at his back or in his face.

“I heard Bangor needed a kicker,” said Barron, “so I just came out.”

Barron had seven kickoffs last Friday in Bangor’s 42-0 victory over Cheverus. On six of the kicks, Cheverus returners fielded the ball at the 11- (twice), 7-, 2-, 5- and 4-yard lines – a performance similar to his effort a week earlier against EL.

“My goal this year is to get at least two out of the end zone, but I’ve just got to keep working on it and keep my leg fresh,” Barron said. “It’s a lot easier on our defense to hold teams back if I kick it down the field or get a touchback so the other team gets it at the 20.”

But it’s not all a matter of distance. Barron’s seventh kickoff against Cheverus was a perfect chip shot over the front line of the Stags’ return team that the Rams’ Keith Clifford recovered at the 25-yard line to set up a Bangor touchdown.

“There’s a huge difference between the 30 and the 40 in high school football, or the 30 and the 20,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett, whose Rams host 2-0 Mt. Blue of Farmington on Friday night at Cameron Stadium.

“It would depress me if I was coaching and we were fielding the ball on the 2 or 3-yard line and then had to work hard just to get it out to the 20 or 30. I just think it sets the tone for the whole game.”

Bangor is still adjusting to Barron’s deep kickoffs, so the Rams are hopeful of taking even greater advantage of the field-position benefits later in the fall.

“Some of it is just Tyson outkicking the coverage,” said Hackett. “We can’t practice this live, so as the season goes on we’ll get better. I think we’re afraid to overrun it, but we’ll get better.”

Barron also is 8-of-9 on extra-point kicks and has made a 24-yard field goal.

“I just have to focus on keeping my head down and following through,” he said.

Vanidestine, meanwhile, is averaging 36.1 yards on seven punts through two weeks, a solid effort by any high school standards.

Then consider that his shortest kick of each game, a 36-yarder in Bangor’s season-opening 29-6 victory over Edward Little at Auburn and a 25-yarder during the 42-0 win against Cheverus, pinned the opponent inside its 10-yard line each time.

“He’s so smart,” Hackett said of Vanidestine. “I think everyone in that family, all the fathers and uncles, I think they were all punters. He didn’t punt for us before, but now he’s punting as good as anyone we’ve had.”

Bangor also has a unique long snapper – the Rams’ starting quarterback, senior Brian Hackett.

“He did that long before he was a quarterback,” said coach Hackett. “It’s sort of the same kind of motion, and he does a good job at it so we’ve stayed with it even though he’s the quarterback now.”

East vs. West a wash – so far

Last weekend’s interconference matchups between the Pine Tree Conference Class A ranks and the Southern Maine Activities Association ended in stalemate, with each league winning seven of the 14 games played.

But the final results were about the only thing close in the rivalry. Just four of the 14 games were decided by 10 points or less, while nine of the games had a final margin of 21 points or more.

Bangor’s 42-0 blitz of Cheverus of Portland was the most decisive East victory, while defending state champion Deering whipped Cony of Augusta 62-7 for the most lopsided West win.

Deering’s outburst helped the West outscore the East by a combined 306-233, but the ultimate measurement of conference vs. conference won’t come for two more months, when the best of the PTC and the SMAA meet for the 2004 Class A state title on Saturday, Nov. 20, at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.