AUBURN — The Edward Little defense was as stout as ever Friday, holding Bangor to negative yardage on the ground and limiting the Rams’ aerial attack in an 18-6 win at Walton Field on Friday.

The Eddies’ defense was the story, stopping Bangor’s run game from the outset, allowing the Rams negative four yards on the ground and forcing a trio of turnovers. The front defensive line of Latrell Thomas, Josh Pelletier and Calen Pelletier shut down Bangor’s Noah White all night long.

Bangor quarterback Gary Farnham was chased throughout the evening by the defense, including a pair of sacks and a fumble recovery from senior linebacker Alex Cook. 

“The kids worked hard this past offseason. Our goal was to get off on the right foot,” coach Dave Sterling said.

Junior running back Caden Begos led the way on the ground, running for 111 yards on 16 carries. Max Bell added 76 yards on five carries. Tyler Blanchard added 33 yards and a touchdown on the ground in the win. 

“We ran the ball exceptionally well today,” Sterling said. “We had some big runs called back because of some penalties. We need to tighten them up and then we’ll really be doing well,” he added.

Edward Little opened the game driving down the field behind Begos’ running before stalling out at the Bangor 18 yard line. After trading punts, Bell got the Red Eddies on the board with a 47 yard dash down the sidelines with 3:44 remaining in the first quarter.

After a fumble recovery by Cook, EL quarterback Grant Hartley pitched left to Blanchard as he dove over the pylon for a 10-yard score, giving EL a 12-0 lead.

The senior wasn’t done. After intercepting a tipped pass with 36-seconds left in the half, Blanchard showed off his throwing skills with a half back option pass by connecting with CJ Jipson for a 35 yard touchdown, sending EL into the locker room with an 18-0 lead at the half.

“We’ve been practicing this on the down-low. We’ve only practiced it this year in practices so far. We ran it once last year and we were hoping Bangor hadn’t seen the film,” Blanchard said.

With a frustrated running game, the Bangor offense took the air 38 times, completing 14 for 135 yards. The Rams’ Derek McCarthy hauled in six catches for 59 yards, including a 16 yard rifle from Farnham for their only score with just over five minutes remaining in the game. Junior wide receiver Alex Yakubu hauled in six catches for 38 yards.

Each team showed some early season rust with some untimely penalties that included pass interference’s, holdings, and some false starts. EL had seven penalties for 42 yards while Bangor also committed seven penalties for 57 yards.

Sterling praised his team after the game. According to the coach, this was the first time in 36 years an EL team had beaten Bangor in back-to-back regular-season games.

But, that’s already in the past, he said. “Portland’s next week, that’s now our focus.”

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