BANGOR -- The Messalonskee High School football team knew it couldn't give up many big plays to Bangor. It's one thing to know that. It's another to stop a team as talented as Bangor from breaking the long one.

The Rams only mounted one long drive on the back of durable running back Lonnie Hackett, but this Friday night, Bangor didn't need to lean on the Pine Tree Conference's leading rusher. The Rams capitalized on three big plays to win 25-13 against Messalonskee in a PTC semifinal game at Cameron Stadium.

Bangor (10-0) will host No. 3 Brunswick (9-1) in the conference championship next Friday. No. 4 Messalonskee ended its best season in Class A at 6-4.

"I thought the kids played very hard. We played very well," Messalonskee coach Wes Littlefield said. "You just can't give good teams opportunities."

In the final minute of the first quarter, Bangor's Joe Seccareccia intercepted a Dylan Foster pass at the Bangor 27 and returned the ball to the Messalonskee 38. Three plays later, Hackett ran 20 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Bangor lead with 11 minutes, 15 seconds left in the half.

"(Foster) got hit, I think, when he was throwing it, so I stepped up and picked it off," Seccareccia said.

Littlefield said: "I thought we were in a great position. I thought we did a great job keeping the ball away from them in the first half."

Messalonskee cut the Rams' lead to a point with 8:12 left in the third quarter when Foster hit a wide open Sam Dexter with a 75-yard touchdown pass. The teams traded punts, but with 4:11 left in the third quarter, Seccareccia returned a punt 52 yards for a touchdown and a 13-6 lead.

After forcing another Messalonskee punt, Bangor's next drive was just one play, a 67-yard pass from Seccareccia to John Kelley down the middle. Kelley, the tight end, was wide open and ran untouched for the score and a 19-6 lead with 36 seconds left in the third quarter.

"We worked on that in practice all week. We knew the safety would come up and play a twin, so we preoccupied him, and John Kelley was right up the seam where there was nobody, and he ran his heart out right there and scored a touchdown," Seccareccia said.

The Eagles pulled within 19-13 when Foster connected with Dexter (five catches, 131 yards) again, this time for 36 yards with 9:44 to play.

"We thought they were going to run it up the middle a lot more, and it did surprise us a little bit," Seccareccia said.

What surprised nobody was Bangor's fourth quarter strategy. Taking over on its own 43 with 9:39 to play, Bangor handed the ball to Hackett a dozen consecutive times. Hackett, who had been bottled up well by the Eagles throughout the game, allowed the Rams to grind out a six-minute drive, running for all 57 yards on the possession and scoring on a 4-yard run to put the game away with 3:44 remaining.

Hackett finished with 129 yards on 30 carries.

"That last drive really put the nail in the coffin. I felt if we got the ball back, we could have done something with it. They did their job," Littlefield said. "We stopped a lot of things tonight, but you've got to take your hat off to Hackett. He's a great player . . . That's what we needed to stop, and we couldn't when we had to."

Messalonskee's last ditch drive ended at the Bangor 28 with 1:16 to play. Foster threw for 167 yards for the Eagles, all in the second half.