GARDINER -Advance within spitting distance of Gardiner’s goal line and the Tigers react more angrily than perhaps any team in the state.

Oxford Hills earned three opportunities to punch in a touchdown in the final 18 seconds of the first half Friday night at Hoch Field. The Vikings lost five yards on a false start penalty, gained one back, fired two incomplete passes and settled for a 22-yard field goal by Justin Cocroft.

The Vikings never sniffed the scoreboard after that, falling 20-3 in a Pine Tree Conference South showdown.

“If we could have gotten seven there, it might have given us some momentum, but we thought getting three might do the same,” said Oxford Hills coach Paul Bickford. “Gardiner’s a very good football team. They’ve allowed, what, two teams to score (a touchdown) all year or something like that?”

Yes, Oxford Hills (4-3) was the fifth team denied access to the end zone by Gardiner (6-1) and its “Cat Pack.” The Tigers surrendered one score in a 12-6 overtime win over Lewiston and another in a bizarre 6-4 loss to Mt. Ararat.

Gardiner already led 14-0 on two touchdown runs by senior tailback Justin Lebourdais before the Vikings embarked on their 18-play, 64-yard scoring drive in the final six minutes of the second quarter.

Lebourdais carried 23 times for 171 yards for the Tigers, whose run-oriented offense isn’t fancy but has made leaps and bounds in October. He rambled 13 yards for a TD on Gardiner’s opening drive and covered 20 yards on his second scoring rush with 6:14 to go in the half.

Nate Munzing (11 carries, 87 yards) added a 42-yard jaunt in the fourth quarter.

“Our offense is coming along,” said Gardiner coach Matt Brown. “We felt we could be physical, because we were more mature than them up front, and hopefully control the tempo of the game to our liking. I’m not sure we did that completely.”

Maybe not, but the Tigers rolled up 309 yards, all on the ground, which was more than enough for the vaunted defense. Gardiner limited Oxford Hills to 83 total yards and an average of just a trifle over one yard per carry.

“We made some changes in our (offensive) blocking schemes after the Mt. Ararat game (three weeks ago),” said junior center and defensive end Sean Kozma. “That’s taken a lot of pressure off our defense.”

Jeff Tifft forced a fumble at the goal line, recovered by Peter Libby, to deny Gardiner early in the second quarter. The Tigers forced a three-and-out, however, and Lebourdais needed only three plays to find the end zone. Kris Ramsay caught the two-point conversion to make it 14-0.

The Vikings kept the ball for the remainder of the half, buoyed by a roughing-the-punter personal foul against Gardiner that pushed Oxford Hills to the Tigers 37.

Runs by Jim Bower yielded some yardage, and Tim Cote (6-for-21, 50 yards) found fullback Kass Eeels out of the backfield for gains of 8 and 13. The latter connection moved the ball to the 1 to set up the closing sequence.

Munzing and Craig Toulouse led the gang tackling for Gardiner, and Randy Irish sacked Cote twice.

“These Gardiner seniors, we knew when they were sophomores how good they were going to be,” said Bickford. “We have a game next week against Windham, and we need to continue to do things to get better and prepare for the playoffs.”