BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor High School football team didn’t waste time showing the Cameron Stadium faithful how it would respond to last week’s heartbreaking 6-0 loss to Windham when the Rams entertained winless Lewiston Friday night.
Standout junior running back Dane Johnson returned the opening kickoff 46 yards and darted 11 yards for a touchdown five plays later.
And the Rams never looked back.
The elusive Johnson rushed for 178 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries in the first half as Bangor built a 34-0 lead en route to a 41-0 victory.
He scored on runs of 11, three, one and 31 yards.
With the game in hand, Johnson spent the second half on the sidelines.
Bangor is now 5-1 while Lewiston fell to 0-6.
“After that 6-0 loss, we got a little fire in our bellies and we came out strong tonight,” said Johnson, who entered the game as Eastern Maine Class A’s leading rusher with 986 yards on 152 carries.
Bangor’s offensive line — center Zack LeClair, guards Cam Cota and Brennan Lang, tackles Onesimus Laraway and Josh Clement and tight end Jordan Ayer — controlled the line of scrimmage for Johnson, Langston Hamer-Nagle and Nick Graham to carve out large chunks of yardage.
The speedy Graham rushed for 110 yards on 16 carries and fullback Hamer-Nagle helped create running room for Johnson and Graham with his blocking while also carrying the ball five times for 29 yards. Junior quarterback Jeff Lewis scrambled 43 yards for a touchdown and Matt Duff capped the scoring with a one-yard plunge in the fourth quarter.
“I definitely have to give credit to the line. They helped me every step of the way and my fullback, Langston, is great,” said Johnson.
“We tried to work hard up front,” said Clement.
“If you don’t get a surge on the line, you can’t move the ball,” said Ayer. “This was a big game. It was another game at home and we can’t afford any more losses. We had to keep it going.”
Johnson used his quick feet and speed to evade tacklers but he also ran hard, breaking a ton of tackles by keeping his legs churning.
Bangor’s second scoring drive covered 70 yards on six plays to make it 13-0 with 6:13 to play in the first quarter.
Johnson carried the ball five times for 66 yards, including a 38-yard run in which he broke two tackles. Johnson finished the drive with his three-yard run.
Following a Lewiston punt, Bangor marched 56 yards to build the lead to 21-0.
Graham scampered 16 yards and then rattled off a six-yard run to bring the ball to the L-1 where Johnson punched it in.
Lewiston put together its best drive of the game to open the second quarter, taking the ball from its own 33 to the Bangor 17.
But that is where the drive stalled as a fourth-and-10 pass by sophomore quarterback Jared Rubin was intercepted by Bryce Pelkey at the 4-yard line.
Bangor strung together a 96-yard, eight-play drive to make it 28-0 as Johnson reeled off runs of 16 and 12 yards and Graham sprinted 28 yards before Johnson burst 31 yards for his fourth touchdown and 17th of the season.
A Lewiston fumble on the ensuing drive, its second of four lost fumbles, gave Bangor the ball at the L-43 and Lewis rolled out right and weaved his way 43 yards on the first play to make it 34-0 with 1:33 left in the half.
End Ayer and linebackers Evan McAuliffe and Ben Crichton were among the defensive standouts for the Rams, who were stout.
“We watched a lot of film and it helped us learn their tendencies. We knew who their playmakers were [Quintarian Brown, Ace Curry and Stone Colby],” said Ayer. “They’re great players and we knew we had to key on them if we were going to beat them.”
Colby, playing with an injured shoulder, led the Blue Devils with 53 hard-earned yards on 12 carries.
Curry and Colby were among Lewiston’s defensive stalwarts.
“We came here a little banged up with a couple of guys we thought could survive but the injury thing was too big for us and Bangor is a good football team. We got exactly what we expected,” said Lewiston coach Bill County, who is retiring after the season. “Hamer-Nagle was one of the league’s best offensive lineman last year and now he’s a fullback.
“Bangor is for real,” added County.