BANGOR – Nick Payson’s ankle was wrapped in a peach-colored bandage. Ricky Dexter’s forehead was caked with blood in places. Bruised and battered, the Bangor High football team banged its way into the Class A state championship game Friday night.

All season the No. 5 Rams have played their best ball in the second half, and that was certainly the case in a 28-22 Pine Tree Conference Class A victory over No. 7 Skowhegan at Cameron Stadium.

No one epitomized that better than Payson, who twisted his right ankle in the third quarter Friday night. After a quick wrap job by Bangor trainer John Ryan, Payson looked better in the second half, and especially in the fourth quarter, than he did all game.

Slowed by Skowhegan’s defense, the junior managed just nine yards in the first half. But once the fourth quarter started, Payson looked like the running back who had gained 276 yards on 39 carries in Bangor’s semifinal win over Gardiner last weekend.

Payson racked up 92 yards on 14 carries against the Indians Friday night – a quiet effort for a player who rushed for 966 yards in the regular season and another 415 combined in the last two playoff games.

But slow starts are nothing new for the Rams. In Bangor’s quarterfinal win over Brunswick, Payson had only eight yards in the first half and 131 in the second.

“We thought he was just trying too hard,” Bangor coach Mark Hackett said of Payson’s first half Friday. “Sometimes you’re trying to hard, or you’re there too quick, and you’re just fighting it. He settled down and I think the line blocked a little better and we wanted it. We’re a second-half team and we pulled it together.”

About two-thirds of Payson’s yardage Friday came on a 62-yard run on the Rams’ first play from scrimmage in a fourth-quarter drive against the Indians, setting up his 1-yard touchdown run with 2 minutes, 54 seconds left in the game.

Hackett said he thought Payson’s ankle injury – the ankle has actually been nagging him all season – helped by slowing him down a step. Payson agreed.

“Definitely, it made me drive a little more,” Payson said. “With the adrenaline rush I had, I didn’t really feel it that much, but I knew it was there.”

Feeling more relaxed – even with the injury – Payson turned things around with the 62-yard pitch play.

“We had some great blocks and that opened up a big hole,” he said of the efforts of Aaron Gallant and Dexter to help spring him loose down the right sideline.

“He went right off my [backside]. It was a good play,” said a bloodied Dexter, whose helmet tears up the skin between his eyebrows. “We’re a second-half team and we came out and exploded.”

Ben Bambrick and Dexter blocked for Payson on his touchdown run.

Lost somewhat in the hype of the Bangor-Skowhegan rematch – the Indians handed the Rams their only loss of the regular season – was the Rams’ memory of losing to Brunswick in the PTC final at home last year.

Although the rivalry with the Indians was foremost in their thoughts, the Rams certainly thought back to last year, too.

“We didn’t want the same thing to happen again,” Dexter said. “We wanted to pick up where we left off last year.”