BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor High School football team rebounded from a rough start last year to battle its way into the Class A North playoffs, then scored a first-round victory before a semifinal loss at defending regional champion Portland.
Second-year head coach Alan Mosca and his team are faced with a challenging early schedule again this fall — including back-to-back games against strong Windham and Bonny Eagle of Standish programs in Weeks 2 and 3 — but want no part of having to dig out of the 0-4 hole they faced in 2015.
That means that Friday’s season opener at Edward Little of Auburn is of utmost importance to a team with a lot of new faces in new places.
“Really what it comes down to is you have to get your feet wet and grow a little bit,” said Mosca after Bangor’s 22-0 exhibition loss at Brewer last Friday night, “and the thing with high school sports is you have to do it really quick because we’ve got a game that counts [this] week.”
Bangor opened at home against Edward Little last fall and led 19-7 early in the fourth quarter before the Red Eddies rallied with two late touchdowns — the game-winner coming with 46 seconds left after having a score wiped out by a Bangor timeout on the previous play — for a stunning 22-19 win.
“We’ve got to win [this] week,” said Mosca. “We’ve got to win [this] week because then we’re staring at Windham and Bonny Eagle after that. After that we’ve got three games we should do pretty well in, but we’ve got to win this week.
“It just comes down to that. We cannot have what happened to us last year. It just can’t happen.”
Senior captain Gary Farnham steps in as a first-year starter at quarterback, and he’ll seek to guide an offense that emphasizes the run game but also features the balance provided by an effective passing game.
Workhorse running back Dane Johnson has graduated, leaving the rushing attack to a trio of newer faces in juniors Luke Tuell and Nick Canarr and senior Noah White — though Tuell is dealing with an apparent knee sprain suffered during the game against Brewer.
“What it boils down is we’ve got a new quarterback and two new backs — three with Noah in there,” said Mosca.
Senior Derek McCarthy and junior Alex Yabuku are primary receiving targets, with junior Nick Cowperthwaite a first-year tight end.
Senior captains Ben Burt and Austin Labbe and classmate Onesimus Laraway are among the leaders along the offensive front, with Labbe and Laraway also keys to the defensive line, while Burt will spark the defensive second level at linebacker, where he was the team’s second-leading tackler last fall.
Tuell, Canarr, Farnham, White, Yabuku and senior Mike Perkins also are expected to play pivotal roles at linebacker or in the secondary.
Class A North figures to follow a path similar to last year when southernmost entries Portland, Windham and Cheverus of Portland led the pack while Bangor and Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference colleagues Edward Little, Lewiston and Oxford Hills of South Paris battled for the remaining three berths in the six-team divisional playoffs.
Portland graduated 2015 Fitzpatrick Trophy winner Joe Esposito, but the Bulldogs return quarterback Isaiah Batchelder to lead the offense and four 2015 All-Class A North first-teamers — lineman Ethan Hoyt, linebacker Nick Archambault and backs Jake Knop and Dylan Bolduc — to anchor the defense.
Cheverus has a new leader in Mike Vance, who replaces the legendary John Wolfgram in the head coaching post after spending 10 years as the Stags’ defensive coordinator.
And Windham, a regional finalist a year ago after winning the Class A North crown in 2014, features one of the state’s most experienced quarterbacks in senior Desmond Leslie.
And while Bangor is focused on getting off to a good start this fall, its hope of moving into that upper echelon also faces a challenging stretch late in the season with back-to-back trips to Portland and Cheverus in Weeks 6 and 7.
“What we’re going to get by on is our toughness and our conditioning,” said Mosca. “We’re not the most skilled team but the kids do have a lot of heart and pride and we’re just going to have to run and throw the ball a little bit.
“We’re going to have to do that but we’re just going to have to get by on our physical and mental toughness.”
