BANGOR, Maine — The undefeated Bangor High School football team has generated 4,154 yards of total offense this season — or 377.6 yards per contest.
That the Rams have been so proficient stems from several factors, headlined by senior tailback Lonnie Hackett and junior quarterback Joe Seccareccia.
Hackett has rushed for 2,057 yards and scored 26 touchdowns leading up to Saturday’s Class A state final against Windham at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.
Seccareccia has passed for 1,211 yards and 13 touchdowns.
But that duo deflects much of the credit for that statistical success elsewhere.
“We’ve really got to thank the line,” said Seccareccia. “The line’s done a fantastic job all year blocking for me, blocking for Lonnie and opening up the holes for him. The line’s really contributed a lot to the team.”
That the offensive line has earned such credit is a testament to that unit’s size, physicality, technique and the knowledge that if it does its job, the yardage and touchdowns will follow.
“We just know that as long as we make the blocks Lonnie’s going to find the holes,” said senior tackle Jacob Thompson. “If we block a guy and we don’t necessarily open up one hole, Lonnie will find another hole and bump it outside for good yards, and Joe’s pretty good at finding open receivers as long as we give him enough time.”
That line — Thompson, senior tackle Andrew Logan, senior center Joe Quinn, senior guard Ben Rapaport and junior guard Josh Bishop — also has provided quality pass protection, as Seccareccia has been sacked just four times this fall.
“On pass plays we’re stepping as a wall together so you have to trust the guy on your back side,” said Quinn. “The last couple of games Joe hasn’t been sacked, and the line has definitely stepped up and given him time in the pocket.”
Another key to the group’s role in Bangor’s 11-0 start has been its depth, for Bangor has faced numerous injuries along the line of scrimmage.
Senior guard Anthony Sullivan went down during the preseason with a knee injury, then two games into the season senior guard Tom Augustine was felled by a torn meniscus. Soon after, Quinn was sidelined for two weeks by a broken pinkie finger.
But in stepped Rapaport, Bishop and junior guard Alex McDade when their names were called, and the Rams simply kept churning out yardage — and victories.
“We had pretty good depth at the beginning of the season,” said Thompson, “so we trusted Ben and Josh when Tommy and Anthony got hurt, and when Joey got hurt we trusted [Alex] to step in. We just trusted all the other people that they were going to do their jobs.”
One advantage of having so many players sharing the positions out of necessity is that most were much fresher come playoff time than if they had played in all 11 games.
“They’re probably in midseason form right now and it’s the end of the season,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett. “Everyone else probably has similar or the same conditions, because that’s what football is all about, guys having to step up and fill roles, but right now they’re really playing as a cohesive unit.”
That cohesiveness was particularly noticeable during Bangor’s Eastern Maine Class A semifinal victory over Messalonskee of Oakland and in last Friday’s regional final against Brunswick.
“We’ve gotten much more physical,” said Quinn, a two-year starter. “For as big a line as we are, I also think we’re very quick. We’ve beaten most of the teams off the ball and we hit them first before they can hit us, which helps a lot.”
That was especially true late in the Messalonskee game, when Bangor mounted a game-clinching 57-yard scoring drive against the Eagles that involved nothing but 12 straight running plays featuring Lonnie Hackett.
For the line, it was a signature drive.
“We just knew that coach was trusting us to get the job done,” said Thompson, “so we just kept running it down their throats. Lonnie trusted us to block for him and we got it done.”
Bangor’s line followed that up with perhaps its best four-quarter effort of the season in a 24-7 victory over Brunswick, as the Rams ground out 306 rushing yards on 49 carries.
“I definitely think we’re getting better every single week,” said Quinn, “and last week was our best week so far by far.
It was a performance motivated in part by the quest for a championship, in part by some video bulletin board material.
“Brunswick was just talking about how they were so much more physical than us and we took that kind of personally,” said Thompson. “We don’t really like teams going on TV and saying they’re more physical than us.”
Saturday’s clash with Windham, set for an 11:06 a.m. start, will provide these linemen one final battle of the trenches, one for which their collective championship dream will be all the motivation they need.
“All of us are quite excited,” said Quinn. “We can’t talk about anything else, and we can’t wait. It’s nothing like last week, last week was all nerves because since the beginning of the season we’ve been looking to go all the way to states, and we had to win that last game to actually get there.
“But now that we’re there, the nerves are gone and we’re just fired up. We can’t wait to play.”
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