BANGOR – What do you get when you combine 16 turnovers with 580 yards of total offense and 70 points? A football championship game that defies description, although some still tried to.

“It’s the weirdest game I’ve ever played in,” said Bangor two-way starter Ben Guerette.

It may have been the weirdest, but it was also the sweetest as the Rams stormed out from a 21-7 halftime deficit to score 42 unanswered points – 35 in a frenetic fourth quarter – to win their second straight Pine Tree Conference title game and punch their tickets to the Class A state championship game.

The Rams’ first 11-0 season will end with their third state game in seven years. Bangor will play the winner of Saturday’s Portland-Massabesic game next Saturday in a 1 p.m. contest at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium. The loss snapped a five-game win streak for surprising Skowhegan, which finishes 6-5.

The Rams shook off an uncharacteristic six turnovers (five of them fumbles) in the first half, scored on their second possession of the second half, and combined a defensive-scheme change plus battering-Ram offensive ball to wear the young Indians down.

“It’s hard to describe. It was a tale of two halves,” said an emotionally spent Skowhegan coach Bob LeCours. “We played solid football in the first half and in the second, they wore us down a little. There’s a lot of different plays that could have changed it either way, and you can’t make mistakes against a team like Bangor.”

That was Bangor’s other saving grace. The Rams were able to turn the tables on the Indians as LeCours watched his team commit four of its nine turnovers in the second half. The Rams turned three of those turnovers into touchdowns and a total of 21 points in a wild five-minute, 44-second span early in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game that one-sided in the first half turn around to be just the opposite in the second,” said Rams coach Mark Hackett. “They looked me right in the eye at halftime and said ‘Coach, it’s not gonna happen.’ We’re a second-half team.”

The Rams comeback charge was started by senior tailback Buddy Nickerson and senior flanker-cornerback Justin Schmersal.

After each team exchanged short possessions to start the second half, Nickerson and the Rams’ offensive line took charge, executing a gutsy, 77-yard scoring drive. The Rams gained all those yards on the ground, and all of them came from Nickerson, as Guerette, guards J.J. Jackson and Trevor Lagrange, and tackles Corey Mayhew and Conor Stephens paved the way as Bangor gained 254 of its 337 rushing yards in the second half.

“It was definitely that drive that turned it around for us,” said Nickerson, who rushed for 95 of his 127 total yards in the second half. “The line just started pushing ’em back and opening some holes.”

Nickerson’s score with 6:06 left in the third put the Rams back in the game, down just 21-14.

Just over a minute later, Schmersal picked off his first of two passes – at the Bangor goal line – and returned the ball 36 yards, although the Rams gave the ball back on an interception with 3:39 left in the third. His second came at the B-5 and he followed that up with a 25-yard return. From there, the Rams went 70 yards in nine plays and finished the drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Chris Bombardier to a wide-open Derrick Shain in the right corner of the end zone.

An Indians’ fumble at their own 22 was recovered by Bangor just 14 seconds later, and Bangor cashed in another opportunity with a four-play drive ending with Bombardier’s eight-yard touchdown option run to the right side.

The effect was obvious on opposing sidelines as Bangor’s side came alive with a deafening roar and the Indians’ side grew as silent as a high school library on Sunday.

The coup de grace came with 6:19 to play, when Schmersal burst out of a pileup in the middle of the line on a counter play, turned right, and sprinted almost untouched for a 58-yard TD run.

“I think tackling hurt us in the second half. We had them wrapped up several times at or behind the line of scrimmage, but they were able to bounce and make some plays,” LeCours said.

Bangor’s switch to a 5-2 defensive front with man-to-man secondary coverage also was a key as the Rams were finally able to put some pressure on Indians’ QB B.J. Dunlap, who torched them for 110 passing yards in the first half, but could only manage one completion in the second for just two yards.

RAMS 49, INDIANS 21

Skowhegan (6-5) 6 15 0 0?21

Bangor (11-0) 0 7 7 35?49

S ? Meyer 3 run (kick failed)

S ? Quirion 27 pass from Dunlap (Walker rush)

B ? Johnson 5 run (Achorn kick)

S ? Walker 4 pass from Dunlap (Dunlap kick)

B ? Nickerson 1 run (Achorn kick)

B ? Shain 17 pass from Bombardier (Achorn kick)

B ? Bombardier 8 run (kick failed)

B ? Schmersal 58 run (Bombardier rush)

B ? Shain 7 pass from Bombardier (Achorn kick)

B ? Largay 26 run (Crane kick)

Skowhegan Bangor

First downs 8 12

Rushing att.-yards 34-63 50-337

Passing comp.-att. 9-25 6-14

Passing yards 112 68

Total yards 175 405

Punts-avg. 5-32.2 3-19.0

Fumbles-lost 7-5 9-5

Intercepted by 2 4

Penalties-yards 7-50 2-20

Rushing

Skowhegan: Walker 18-59, Meyer 3-29, Gorman 1-(minus 10), Dunlap 2-(minus 15); Bangor: Nickerson 24-127, Schmersal 3-70, Bombardier 9-68, Johnson 11-46, Largay 2-29, Flynn 1-(minus 3)

Passing

Skowhegan: Dunlap 9-25-4-112; Bangor: Bombardier 6-14-2-68

Receiving

Skowhegan: Walker 5-59, Quirion 2-39, Plourde 1-8, Bird 1-6; Bangor: Shain 2-24, Hinton 1-17, Schmersal 2-15, Prentiss 1-12

A? 700 (est.)