It took Ryan Howard just 15 seconds to christen the new artificial turf at Cameron Stadium.
That’s how long the Bangor High School senior needed to return the opening kickoff of the first game played at the newly refurbished facility 99 yards for a touchdown to propel the Rams to a 55-0 Class A football victory over Deering of Portland on Friday night.
“The first play of the game, honestly I couldn’t have dreamt of anything better than that,” said Howard, who was returning to action after being sidelined last week with a sprained AC joint.
Senior tailback Joey Morrison added four rushing touchdowns and Bangor’s defense generated seven quarterback sacks and forced three turnovers as the Rams rebounded from a lopsided loss at Thornton Academy of Saco last Saturday night with a convincing win to improve their record to 4-1.
Deering falls to 0-5.
“Deering played hard, but our guys played hard and we really needed a night like this,” Bangor coach Dave Morris said. “We’ve been on the other end of these for several years, so to have a night like this in Bangor with this field and everything, it was a great night for the Bangor Rams.”
Howard caught the opening kickoff of the first game played at the newly refurbished facility on the Bangor 1-yard line, then raced up the middle of the field, across the 18-yard-wide Rams logo at midfield and on to the endzone to complete a memorable moment in Bangor High School football history.
“I thought the ball was going straight into the endzone and it pretty much did,” Howard said. “Then I saw a line of white jerseys but one of my teammates, Colton Emerson, came up and picked up the one guy who was in front of me. Then there was nothing but green grass.”
Howard’s touchdown-producing kickoff return was his second in as many home games for the Rams this season, following an 84-yard scoring run to open Bangor’s 42-6 Week 2 victory over Lewiston, That game was played at Hampden Academy while the finishing touches were being put on the 10-year, $5 million renovation of Cameron Stadium.
It also may have reflected the work Bangor focused on its kicking game this week after yielding two returns for touchdowns and one punt return for a third score during its 84-13 loss at Thornton Academy on the same day 21 players returned to the Rams’ roster from a 10-day COVID-19 quarantine.
“We didn’t play very well last week with special teams, so obviously we worked a lot on that this week and tonight the kids executed well and things went our way,” Morris said.
Morrison rushed for 87 yards and scored all of his touchdowns as Bangor built a 41-0 halftime lead.
The senior tailback scored from a yard out on Bangor’s first possession to make it 14-0, capping off a five-play, 41-yard march.
Howard scored his second touchdown of the night when he outwrestled a Deering defender for possession of the ball to complete a 13-yard pass reception from senior quarterback Max Clark (10 of 13 passing, 135 yards) in the final minute of the opening quarter to give Bangor a 21-0 cushion.
Morrison added second-quarter touchdown runs of 8, 9 and 3 yards.
Bangor’s defense limited Deering to 32 total yards in the first two quarters thanks in part to five quarterback sacks, including two each by senior defensive end Jackon Vorenkamp and senior linebacker Cabryn Streams.
Kevin Grover scored on a 9-yard run for Bangor in the third quarter and Mike Smith, who started the game on offense at left guard, had a 16-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth period.
Smith also recovered a fumble after one of Streams’ quarterback sacks, while Brayden Caron and Parker Small each had a second-half pass interception for the Bangor defense.
