PARIS  — Bangor was determined to hit back after being drubbed by Oxford Hills on this same field in the regular-season finale a week ago.

The return trip to the Gouin Athletic Complex was a success, as the third-seeded Rams defeated the second-seeded Vikings 35-6 in a Class A North football semifinal Friday.

Rams coach David Morris said his message throughout the week, following last week’s 34-7 loss, was to “hit,” and Bangor was the more physical team on both sides of the ball from the start of Friday’s contest.

“I’ll tell you what, they came down here and they played like it was their last game, because for most of us it would have been if we had lost,” Bangor quarterback and linebacker Kyle Johnson said of the defense. “So there were no regrets. We went out there and we did what we do best.”

The Rams (6-4) advance to face No. 1 Portland (8-2) in the regional final next week.

How Bangor won

• Bangor started the game on its own 28, and Johnson called his own number on the first play from scrimmage, found a hole and ran 72 yards for a touchdown.

“Everything went black on that first play,” Johnson said. “As I’m running down the sideline, I really don’t know what happened. I just remember being in the end zone. It’s just a surreal feeling.”

• The Vikings (5-5) struggled to snap the ball early on, and a high snap sailed out of bounds for a safety late in the first quarter, giving the Rams a 9-0 lead.

• Johnson (23 rushes, 153 yards) scored twice more on 9- and 10-yard runs to extend Bangor’s lead to 21-0.

“Well, in my opinion, he’s the best player in the state of Maine,” Morris said of Johnson. “Then, our offensive line did a (heck) of a job blocking. I thought Eli Marsh and Zac Cota did a great job of complementing the run. So it was just a (heck) of a team effort.”

The Rams’ running game had a lot of success on a sweep plan that caught the Vikings off guard.

“I don’t think they ran that formation or that play last week,” Oxford Hills coach Nate Danforth said. “That’s on me as a coach; I’ve got to have those guys prepared for anything, and they weren’t. We tried to adjust during the game, and Bangor’s just fired up. We just couldn’t dig in and stop that play. They just ran the same play over and over again, and we did what we could.”

• Eli Marsh (nine carries, 44 yards) ran 22 yards for another score to make it a 28-0 advantage in the fourth quarter.

• Hayden Summerlin scored the Rams’ final touchdown on a 75-yard interception return.

“I saw that ball in the air, and I was like, ‘I’m taking this to the house’ as soon as I saw it,” Summerlin said. “I knew no one was catching me and I scored.”

• Oxford Hills gained 60 of its 67 yards of total offense during its final drive, which was capped by quarterback Dylan Truman’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Stack.