BANGOR – The unofficial motto of last year’s Edward Little football team was “Improve every game, every half, every quarter.” That ethic served the Red Eddies well enough to earn them the Pine Tree Conference championship.

EL has taken the same approach to defending its conference title, and certainly, the Eddies played better in the second half than they did the first in Friday’s season-opener against Bangor.

Unfortunately for the Eddies, the Bangor offense was in mid-season form from the moment it took the field at Cameron Stadium, jumping out to a 28-0 halftime lead and cruising to a 42-14 win.

Mike Prentiss rushed for 182 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries and caught another score receiving as the Rams sliced through a rebuilding EL defense for 498 total yards.

Prentiss, who converted from wide receiver to tailback for his senior year, enjoyed the luxury so many great Bangor backs before him have enjoyed, running behind a big, technically crisp offensive line. He gained 129 yards in the first half, added on 43 more on just two more carries in the second half before calling it a night on offense. For good measure later, he intercepted a Matt Bennett pass.

“Our offensive line worked really hard this week. They’re big kids,” Prentiss said.

Bangor controlled the line of scrimmage from the start, running the ball mostly through the middle of the defense on the first seven plays of the game to march from its own 39 to the EL-28.

Prentiss made the Eddies pay even when they clogged up the middle. On second-and-3 from the 28, Prentiss got the ball on a dive over right guard. As the gap closed quickly, Prentiss turned on a dime, cut to his right and saw nothing but green grass in front of him for the Rams’ opening score.

“I didn’t see any holes up the middle, so I figured if I could get to the outside, I could break it,” Prentiss said.

“They’re real physical, they’ve got a big offensive line and they execute well,” said EL coach Jim Hersom. “We tried a number of different things defensively, but I just think they were sound in what they were doing up front.”

After the Eddies went three-and-out on their first possession, Bangor decided to mix bruising fullback Ben Payson into the running game. The Rams’ success on the ground paid off as QB Shaun Sullivan (8-11, 95 yards) faked out the Eddies on a play-action pass to Prentiss for a 25-yard touchdown that made it 14-0 just 6:15 into the game.

The Eddies finally got their offense moving and drove into Bangor territory on their next two possessions with effective draw plays and option pitches to Chris LeClair (12 carries, 54 yards, 1 TD). But Bennett had difficulty finding his rhythm all night (4-for-18, 51 yards) and each drive died around the Bangor 45.

The Rams, meanwhile, padded their lead on a spinning three-yard TD run off right tackle by Tyler Heber with 4:08 left in the second quarter and a two-yard plunge by Prentiss with no time left in the half.

LeClair took in an option pitch in from five yards out to make it 28-7 in the third quarter. Chris Lemieux ran around the left side on a sweep for a 94-yard TD late in the game.

“We played a lot better in the second half. We’re really encouraged by that,” Hersom said. “We hit with them in the second half. There was some real good hitting going on in the second half. In the third period, I thought we picked up the intensity defensively.”

But Bangor reasserted itself on its first possession of the second half, driving 56 yards on just four plays, capped by a 17-yard TD run by Prentiss, to widen the lead back to four touchdowns.

rwhitehouse@sunjournal.com

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