BANGOR — There was little separation between Bangor and Edward Little of Auburn as they met in a Class A football season opener at Husson University on Saturday night.

But three turnovers by the Red Eddies and the vagaries of the extra-point play ultimately proved decisive as Bangor escaped with an ever-so-narrow 14-13 victory.

“They looked pretty good to me, strong and physical,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett of Edward Little. “I’m just happy we won, because now we’re sitting in a good position. We knew we had to beat Edward Little; we felt this was a have-to-win game.”

Bangor broke a scoreless deadlock on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Xavier Lewis to Ozzie Degnan with 5:16 left in the first half, a play that required an over-the-shoulder grab by the senior wide receiver.

“Ozzie had a spectacular catch on that, over the shoulder with contact,” said Lewis of the timing pattern. “He helped me out on that one, for sure.”

Lewis successfully kicked the extra point, but Edward Little was called for offsides on the play, advancing the ball to the 1½-yard line and prompting Bangor to go for two — which it got on an Alex Welch rush to extend their lead to 8-0.

That additional extra point proved pivotal in this one-point game.

“The (officials) apologized to me because it was supposed to be a dead ball, and I hate to take the point off the board, but whenever there’s a penalty on an extra point we always go for (two) because we think it’s easier to get a yard and a half than it is to snap it, hold it and kick it, and it tends to work,” said Hackett. “That was huge.”

Edward Little pulled within 8-7 just before halftime on a 25-yard keeper by quarterback Ian Mileikis (87 rushing yards, 70 passing yards).

Bangor took the second-half kickoff and marched 64 yards in 10 plays, with Welch scoring on a 2-yard run to give the Rams a 14-7 lead after Mileikis blocked Lewis’ extra-point kick.

EL responded with a 16-play march of its own, capped off when senior running back Johnny Boyd (15 carries, 49 yards) used second effort to score from the 2 on the second play of the fourth quarter.

But EL’s extra-point kick went wide right, leaving Bangor with a 14-13 lead it nursed the rest of the way.

The Red Eddies were due to get the ball back with just under five minutes remaining but mishandled a punt return for the second time in the contest.

Bangor’s Logan Lanham recovered at the EL 35, enabling the Rams to run the clock down to its final 8.7 seconds before Lanham fumbled on a fourth-down carry from the Red Eddies’ 9.

Mileikis was then sacked by Bangor defensive end Nick Ashey on the game’s final play.

“We’re a good defensive team, but we gave up a couple of opportunities to a really good team, we missed an extra point that cost us the game, and that’s the game of football,” said Edward Little coach Dave Sterling. “But we’re a young group of guys that really believes in ourselves now, and we’ll build from here.”

Bangor outgained EL by a scant four yards, 210-206, with Welch rushing for 77 yards on 15 attempts and Lanham adding 43 yards on 14 second-half carries.

Lewis completed 4 of 6 passes for 69 yards for the Rams.

Copy the Story Link