GARDINER – For the past nine weeks, the Gardiner Tigers used their power running game to beat up their opponents. Friday night they met up with someone a little bit bigger and stronger.

The No. 5 Bangor Rams used their size and strength to pound out 400 yards on the ground as they ousted top-seeded Gardiner from the playoffs with a 39-14 Eastern Class A semifinal win.

Nick Payson scored five touchdowns and rushed for 269 yards on 38 carries for the Rams (9-1).

“We hoped that our size would be the difference,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett. “We were just too big and strong for them.”

The Rams recovered a Craig Toulouse fumble on the opening play from scrimmage. Four plays later, Payson swept over the left side for a 19-yard touchdown.

The next offensive series was more of the same as the Rams put together a 77-yard scoring drive which was capped by a Payson 31-yard run.

“I think we were just fired up,” said Payson of his team’s productive start. “We came out and hammered the ball down the field.”

Gardiner (8-2) would answer with its own touchdown drive before the end of the first quarter as Tom Colby (14 carries for 47 yards) and Toulouse (10-45) alternated runs on a eight-play, 53-yard drive which culminated with a Colby 3-yard touchdown.

The two teams traded scores before the end of the half as Payson scored from four yards out and Gardiner’s Kyle Stilphen found tight end Sean McNally for a 9-yard score with 6.8 seconds left in the second quarter.

Payson and the Rams opened the third quarter with another scoring drive with Payson going over from the 1.

Two more long scoring drives were too much for the Tigers to overcome.

Bangor quarterback Brian Hackett only needed to throw the ball four times as the big offensive line pounded away at the Tiger front line from start to finish.

“Our game plan was to take away the middle and they bounced it outside,” said Gardiner coach Matt Brown. “We tried five different fronts in the first half and put together another one at halftime. None of them worked. They were just too physical.”