BANGOR, Maine — It was an agonizing regular season at times for the Bangor High School football team.
A last-minute 22-19 loss to Edward Little of Auburn opened the schedule, and a midseason 32-29 defeat at Lewiston followed a similar heartbreaking format.
Decisive defeats on back-to-back weekends against defending regional champion Windham and perennial power Bonny Eagle of Standish also were part of an 0-4 start.
But coach Al Mosca’s club has just kept playing football and since then has split its last four games — last weekend shaking off a 59-0 loss to undefeated Portland in Week 7 to close out the schedule with a 35-21 victory at Oxford Hills-Buckfield of South Paris to earn a return to the playoffs.
“I think it speaks volumes for the kids,” said Mosca, the Rams’ first-year head coach. “This is a very proud group of kids with a lot of great senior leadership. They’ve overcome a lot and have an unbelievable attitude, and they’ve made the effort and commitment to practice hard and focus on each day and to use that day as an opportunity to get better.”
Senior Dane Johnson rushed for 141 yards and scored three touchdowns in the win at Oxford Hills-Buckfield, while backfield mate Ben Crichton added 135 rushing yards, including scoring runs of 9 and 41 yards.
Johnson’s performance pushed him over 1,000 rushing yards for the second straight season.
The win also vaulted the 2-6 Rams past Lewiston into fifth place in Class A North and set up a quarterfinal rematch with No. 4 Edward Little, this time at 7 p.m. Friday at Walton Field in Auburn.
“You work hard at football for 48 weeks to play for four weeks because it’s a four-week playoff,” said Mosca. “You work hard in the offseason, you work hard in the preseason and you work hard in the regular season to get to this point right here.”
EL rallied from a 19-7 fourth-quarter deficit in its Week 1 meeting with Bangor, getting a touchdown pass from Matt Verrill with 46 seconds left for the three-point victory.
“You’ve got to respect what Edward Little’s done,” said Mosca. “Their game plan fits their personality really well. They throw the ball really well and they have some athletes they like to get the ball to in space.”
A win against the 3-5 Red Eddies, who knocked off Lewiston 35-21 in their Battle of the Bridge last Friday, would put Bangor back where it has advanced each of its two seasons in the current Class A under the resurrected four-class statewide format — the regional semifinals.
“There’s something special about playing football in Maine at this time of year,” said Mosca. “The ground’s muddy, it’s cold out, the leaves are falling off the trees, it gets dark so early. It’s a different animal.
“But you know if you’re playing now, you did something right during the regular season.”
