Bangor holds off Eagles in 2nd half Rams control 1st half to knock off Messalonskee in pivotal PTC clash

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BANGOR – The 300 or so sports fans who weren’t watching the Red Sox-Yankees series were treated to two football games for the price of one at Cameron Stadium Friday night.

In a tale of two halves, the Bangor Rams played a near-perfect first half to take a 22-0 lead and then withstood – barely – a furious rally by Messalonskee of Oakland to come out of a key Pine Tree Conference Class A clash with a 22-17 victory over the previously unbeaten Eagles.

“I don’t think it was luck or anything,” said coach Mark Hackett, whose Rams improve to 4-1. “I just think they took it to us and handed us our hats in the second half. We played just well enough to get out of Dodge with our lives and hold on. We grew a lot.”

Alex Gallant led Bangor with 112 yards (40 in the second half) on 28 carries while Ian Edwards hit on 8 of 13 passes for 162 yards – all in the first half.

All of Bangor’s TD’s came through the air as Edwards found Tom Crews (four catches, 94 yards) for two scoring passes and Ryan Weston for one.

Talk about a complete reversal. The Rams racked up 12 first downs and 270 total yards in the first half, but were held to one first down and just 43 total yards in the second. The Eagles managed just two first downs and 46 yards in the first half, but looked like a totally different team in the second with eight first downs and 144 yards.

“They could have come out and laid down, but they didn’t do that. This team has character,” said Eagles coach Wes Littlefield. “We didn’t make any adjustments. We just said ‘Let’s come out and play Messalonskee football, be physical and get after them’ and that’s what we did.”

The 3-1 Eagles made it clear early in the second half they weren’t about to give up. They returned the kickoff 20 yards and then marched 65 yards in a 12-play drive lasting four minutes and ending with a two-yard touchdown run by Danny May. The Eagles earned five first downs in the drive.

“Up front, we didn’t block a soul in the first half,” said Littlefield. “Everything we did wrong then, we did right in the second half. This is one we’re going to have to learn from.”

The Eagles defense then came up big by intercepting Rams quarterback Edwards at the 50-yard line. Nick Ouellette picked off the pass and returned it to the B-15, but a clipping penalty on the return brought the ball all the way back to the M-40.

The Eagles ended up punting after eight plays, but got the ball back two plays later when Ouellette came up big again. This time he recovered a fumble by Bangor tailback Gallant at the B-36 to spark an eight-play scoring drive capped by quarterback Ted Fabian’s one-yard TD run up the middle with 11:24 left in the game. A bad snap on the PAT kick forced holder Luke Thomas to pass and he found May in the end zone for two points.

The Rams’ unraveling continued five plays later as a bad snap on a punt attempt at the B-16 forced Gallant to swat it out of the back of the end zone for a safety with 9:36 to go.

It was then that Bangor’s defense stiffened, forcing the Eagles to go three-and-out on their next two possessions.

“We got our own defense going a bit and stuffed them by keeping them from breaking the line of scrimmage and getting out toward the sideline,” said Rams senior defensive back and captain Zach Murphy.

With 2:02 to play, the Eagles had one last chance and took control at the M-26, but could only manage one 3-yard pass and another 3-yard run. Murphy’s sack of Fabian for a 5-yard loss forced a last-gasp, fourth down halfback option play ending on an incompletion by May with 29 seconds left. Bangor then ran out the clock.

May rushed for 74 yards in the second half en route to 97 total on 23 carries.

RAMS 22, EAGLES 17

Messalonskee (3-1) 0 0 7 10 – 17

Bangor (4-1) 7 15 0 0 – 22

B-Weston 13 pass from Edwards (Barron kick)

B-Crews 18 pass from Edwards (Barron kick)

B-Crews 27 pass from Edwards (Crews pass from Edwards)

M-May 2 run (Fabian kick)

M-Fabian 1 run (May pass from Fabian)

M-Safety, bad Bangor punt snap batted out of end zone by Gallant

Messalonskee Bangor

First downs 10 13

Rushing att.-yards 40-125 39-151

Passing comp.-att. 7-16 8-13

Passing yards 65 162

Total yards 190 313

Punts-avg. 6-35.8 3-25.7

Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1

Intercepted by 1 0

Penalties-yards 6-43 3-25

Rushing

Messalonskee: May 23-97, Cote 5-17, Ouellette 2-7, Fabian 10-4; Bangor: Gallant 28-112, Silver 2-11, Bambrick 4-11, Batchelder 1-9, Crews 1-8, Edwards 3-0

Passing

Messalonskee: Fabian 7-15-0-65, May 0-1-0-0; Bangor: Edwards 8-13-1-162

Receiving

Messalonskee: Ziegenfus 2-33, Evans 1-10, Murphy 1-8, Ouellette 1-6, Fenlason 1-5, May 1-3; Bangor: Crews 4-94, Weston 2-49, Barron 2-19

A-300 (est.)