BANGOR – They had lingered in Trevor Lagrange’s mind for a full year.

Just six inches separated the Bangor High football team from victory against Skowhegan when they last met on the football field, the Rams coming up that short of a tying touchdown in overtime.

“They beat us by six inches last year, and we weren’t going to let that happen again,” said Lagrange, an offensive guard and defensive tackle.

Lagrange and his linemates made sure it didn’t, dominating at the point of attack as Bangor silenced Skowhegan 17-0 in a Pine Tree Conference Class A football matchup at Cameron Stadium.

The loss ended a 14-game regular-season winning streak for the Indians, and leaves Bangor and Skowhegan tied atop the PTC northern division standings with 3-1 records.

“We have a lot of pride at Bangor, and maybe we earned a little respect tonight,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett. “We had a good game last week [a 29-7 win against Mt. Blue], and now this is two in a row, and anytime you beat Skowhegan it’s a good win.

“We’re for real.”

While Lagrange, Kyle Oliver, Danny Day, Eric Anderson and Ricky Dexter controlled the line of scrimmage, Mike Prentiss provided instant field position for the Rams.

The senior tailback broke a 61-yard touchdown run with 11:08 left in the second quarter to give Bangor a 7-0 lead, returned an interception 38 yards to set up the Rams’ second touchdown and had a 59-yard punt return to set up the only points of the second half, a 23-yard field goal by Jordan Heath with 10:42 left in the game. Prentiss finished with 158 rushing yards on 25 carries.

“Prentiss is a very solid, strong runner, and hard to bring down,” said Skowhegan coach Bob LeCours. “He’s one of the better backs in the league.”

Bangor’s other touchdown came thanks to the improvisational skills of senior quarterback Shaun Sullivan, who escaped a pass rush to find tight end P.J. Dowe for a 17-yard touchdown pass with 3:43 left in the first half.

While Bangor was amassing 231 total yards and 11 first downs, the Rams’ defense limited Skowhegan to 103 total yards. Skowhegan was missing three starters, including lineman Craig Lowell (knee) and tailback Zach Davis (flu), and never managed more than 19 yards in a possession until backup quarterback Craig Faloon had a 26-yard pass completion to Scott Libby in the game’s final minute.

The Indians’ top rusher, fullback Jared Walker, had just 32 yards on 10 carries, while starting quarterback Mark Malo completed 2 of 18 passes for 41 yards.

“Bangor’s a solid, very physical football team, and we couldn’t get untracked tonight,” said LeCours. “We tried some things, and I thought our game plan was good, but when it comes down to it you’ve got to make plays, and we had an off night.”

Skowhegan did have the game’s first scoring threat after Mike Beauregard recovered a Prentiss fumble at the Bangor 17 late in the first quarter. The Indians reached the 13, but a Dowe sack of Malo followed by a fourth-down incompletion gave Bangor the ball back at its 27.

On first down, Prentiss ran for six yards. On second down, he broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage, eluded the Skowhegan secondary and raced to the end zone.

“I was able to push off a guy at the line, and then I saw everyone going left so I went right,” said Prentiss.

Prentiss intercepted a Malo pass later in the period and returned it from midfield to the Skowhegan 12. Three plays later, Sullivan scrambled left to elude a defender and found Dowe open in the end zone to extend the Bangor lead to 14-0.

“I saw the pocket collapse, so I started running,” said Sullivan. “I was going to throw it out of bounds, but then I saw P.J. wide open so I chucked it.”

From there it was left to the defense, which allowed no rushing play of more than seven yards.

“We knew they would come right at us,” said linebacker Ben Payson, “but we just had to come out and hit them hard so they would wear down in the third and fourth quarters.”

RAMS 17, INDIANS 0

Skowhegan (3-1) 0 0 0 0 ? 0

Bangor (3-1) 0 14 0 3 ? 17

B?Prentiss 67 run (Heath kick)

B?Dowe 17 pass from Sullivan (Heath kick)

B?Heath 23 field goal

Skowhegan Bangor

First downs 6 11

Rushing att.-yards 26-36 40-194

Passing comp.-att. 3-20 3-10

Passing yards 67 37

Total yards 103 231

Punts-avg. 9-33.9 6-32

Fumbles-lost 4-1 2-1

Intercepted by 1 1

Penalties-yards 5-43 8-67

Rushing

Skowhegan: Walker 10-32, Libby 8-14, Lisherness 3-9, Lacasse 2-2, Lewis 1-(minus 1), Malo 2-(minus 20); Bangor: Prentiss 25-158, B. Payson 6-20, Heber 8-18, N. Payson 1-(minus 2)

Passing

Skowhegan: Malo 2-18-1-41, Faloon 1-2-0-26; Bangor: Sullivan 3-10-1-37

Receiving

Skowhegan: Goff 1-27, Libby 1-26, Plourde 1-14; Bangor: Dowe-1-17, McPike 1-13, DeRosa 1-7

A?1,250 (est.)