It looked like the Bangor High School football team might pull off an impressive comeback against the Winnacunnet Warriors on Friday night. But two costly fumbles helped the visitors from New Hampshire leave the Pine Tree state with a 14-7 win.
The Warriors went up 7-0 early and held Bangor scoreless in the first half. The run-heavy Rams offense was missing starting quarterback Kyle Johnson, who also typically commands the Bangor defense from the linebacker position.
Bangor head coach Dave Morris said Johnson has been dealing with an ankle issue, and sat out to avoid injuring it more ahead of the final two games of the regular season. Sophomore backup Alex Tennett looked capable in relief.
“He did a heck of a job,” Morris said about Tennett stepping in behind center Friday night.
After a long Hayden Summerlin kick return gave Bangor momentum to start the second half, the Rams started to move the ball and senior co-captain Eli Marsh finished that drive off with a 23-yard touchdown.
With the game tied, Bangor followed that score up with a big defensive stop on third down, and the game seemed to be tilting in the Rams’ favor. They marched down into Winnacunnet territory, but a Bangor fumble at the visitors’ 22-yard-line stalled the progress.
That’s when things got strangely repetitive. After Winnacunnet similarly pushed into Bangor territory, the Warriors fumbled at the Bangor 22-yard-line, the same point on the field where Bangor had just fumbled.
But just as the Rams looked to get going on offense again, they fumbled two plays later, giving it right back to the visiting team.
Winnacunnet, visiting as part of a multi-year scheduling experiment that pits teams from the Granite State against Class A opponents in Maine, took advantage. Quarterback Sean Griffin punched the ball into the endzone on a 3-yard keeper to put his team up 14-7, and that ended up being the final score of the game.
“It’s a tough thing. They hit hard. We hit hard,” Morris said. “That game was going to come down to who made the least amount of mistakes, and we made a few more.”
Bangor dropped to 4-3 on the season, and Winnacunnet is now 6-1.
“It was a battle-tested game. They’re a good football team. They’re a really good football team,” Morris said. “I thought we played well. I thought we played hard. Again, we just made a couple mistakes. And we’ll grow from it.”
Next up for Bangor is an Oct. 24 trip to Edward Little High School in Auburn.
