BANGOR – After being stopped twice at the 1-yard line, Edward Little came out of its time out in a power-I, looking to punch it in and take an early third-quarter lead on what everyone thought was a desperate Bangor team.

But rather than beef up its goal line defense with big linemen, Bangor stayed in a base defense, and it not only stopped Grady Burns, EL’s goal-line fullback, but it forced a fumble. The Red Eddies never got that close to scoring again.

Lonnie Hackett rushed for 263 yards and all three of Bangor’s touchdowns on 35 carries as Bangor rebounded from a crushing loss to unbeaten Lawrence last week to knock off previously unbeaten Edward Little, 21-13, at Cameron Stadium on Friday night.

“This win means a lot. In a lot of ways, our season was on the line today,” said Hackett, whose Rams improved to 2-2. “After losing a tough one against Lawrence, we really had to battle back and win today.”

Trailing by a point, EL (3-1) took the opening drive of the second half 63 yards on six plays, the biggest play coming on a 43-yard Cody Goddard pass over the middle to Shane Ciriello (three catches, 72 yards) that ended up at the Rams’ 1.

Bangor thought they had a fumble recovery on the Eddies’ next play from scrimmage, but Buddy Foss (19 carries, 177 yards, TD) was ruled down after no gain. The Rams stuffed Dylon Therrien for no gain on second down, leading to EL’s time out.

“We lined up and everybody knows we’re going to run the blast off-tackle,” EL coach Darren Hartley said. “Our kids have to understand that that football team knows we’re running the ball in the C gap. I don’t care. Get down, beat them to leverage, down block, kick out and get your butt up in there for a yard.”

“We stayed in the base defense because we’re comfortable in that,” Bangor coach Mark Hackett said. “The linebackers just ran the seams and it seemed to work. That was a character-builder.”

The Eddies tried the middle on Burns’ fumble, and the ball appeared to be slipping from his grasp as he was approaching the pile at the goal line. Regardless, Jacob Thompson was there to make the recovery for Bangor.

EL made another foray into Bangor territory on its next possession, but Adam Billings snuffed that with an interception at his own 20. The Rams converted a big 4th-and-1 on their ensuing possession by getting the Eddies’ defensive line to jump offsides. Four plays later, Hackett rushed 40 yards for his third score midway through the fourth quarter.

The Rams used Hackett and Billings (21 carries, 81 yards) to control the ball for much of the first half. Hackett’s eight-yard TD run put the Rams up 7-0 late in the first quarter. But taking advantage of the lack of rain in the first half, EL’s quick-strike offense answered with a 39-yard TD pass from Goddard (9-for-24, 128 yards, TD, INT) to Devin Flynn to tie it 49 seconds into the second quarter.

The Eddies took their only lead of the game on their next possession, as Foss scampered up the middle on a 20-yard scoring run. The missed extra point made it 13-7, which allowed Bangor to reclaim the lead on its next drive, which Hackett capped with a 32-yard TD run off left tackle. The extra point gave the Rams a 14-13 edge going into halftime.

“The offense carried us for a big part of this,” said Mark Hackett. “It’s great playing defense when you’re on offense.”

The Eddies’ passing game suffered from a number of drops, as well as a misfire by Goddard on their final possession of the first half when he had a streaking Dominique Bailey three yards beyond the defense down the right sideline but overthrew him.

“I’m convinced now that we can play with anybody,” Hartley said. “We were very lucky to take care of business last week (against Brunswick). Now I’m convinced that if we have better focus and stay more composed when we need to, we can play with anybody.”