GARDINER — John Hersom thought his team could play better. And at halftime Friday night, holding a hard-fought 10-point lead over Gardiner, he asked his Lawrence High football team if it felt the same way.

“We didn’t bring it up too much about not being emotionally ready,” the Bulldogs coach said. “We asked the kids if we could play harder, asked the question to them. They spoke up and all felt they could.”

And then they proved it. The Bulldogs held Gardiner off the board in the second half and scored twice more themselves, turning an up-for-grabs contest into a runaway 34-10 victory at Hoch Field.

“Now that we’ve won four in a row, it feels good. We didn’t think we were a bad team at the start of the season,” said Hersom, whose team has improved to 4-2 after an 0-2 start. “We certainly have got some pieces in place where we’re executing better. … We’re starting to come together where we have pretty good chemistry. Everyone’s playing hard for each other.”

The latest notch in the winning streak started on shaky ground with the Bulldogs seemingly headed for a 13-10 halftime lead. A fumble by the Tigers (1-5) deep in their own territory gave Lawrence a late break, however, and a 15-yard touchdown pass from Braden Ballard (5-of-9, 146 yards, two touchdowns) to Jared Dodge (three catches, 115 yards, two touchdowns) with only 48 seconds to go provided a late momentum swing.

Still, Hersom wanted to see more.

“They were hitting with us,” he said. “It certainly felt like it was anyone’s game in the first half.”

The separation began at the opening whistle of the third quarter. Gashed by big plays on the ground earlier in the game, the Lawrence defense forced a quick three-and-out, then took advantage of the short field when Tyler Larouche (13 carries, 84 yards) ran for 20 yards to start the drive and then 4 yards to finish it, making it 27-10 with 8:54 left in the third.

The defense forced another punt on the next series, and once again the Bulldogs were ready with a haymaker. Gunner McAllister (10 carries, 113 yards) took the lead this time, running for 27 yards to kick-start the drive from the Lawrence 23-yard line, and then for 8 yards and finally for 3 to the end zone to up the lead to 34-10 with 1:03 remaining in the third.

“They answered their call,” Hersom said. “I think it’s all there for us. We’ve just got to be mature enough to handle playing hard every Friday night.”

It was frustration on the other sideline, where Tigers coach Joe White said his team’s inability to keep up the pace from the first half has been an issue much of the year.

“We have to establish some consistency and play four quarters of football,” he said. “These kids are either strong in the first half or strong in the second half, but to put four complete (quarters) together has kind of been what has ailed them a little bit.”

The Tigers flirted with the upset during a first half that saw a flurry of big plays for both teams. Lawrence struck first on its opening drive when McAllister broke through the Gardiner defense for a 29-yard touchdown run with 9:53 to go in the first quarter. Undaunted, the Tigers put up points on their first possession, with Cody Spencer (14 carries, 55 yards) running seven times for 42 yards en route to Matt Boynton’s 22-yard field goal with 2:02 left in the first.

The Bulldogs upped their lead to 13-3 on the first play of their third series, with Ballard dropping a perfect play action pass over the middle to Dodge, who caught it in stride and raced the rest of the way untouched for a 78-yard connection with 9:22 left in the half.

Ballard knew it could be a touchdown when he called the play, and knew it would be one when the pass left his hand.

“I saw before the play the safety was creeping up, so I knew I had that before the play started,” he said. “Jared had it, and he wasn’t looking back.”

Again, Gardiner had a response. Nate Malinowski (seven carries, 92 yards) took a handoff, darted up the middle, hopped through a hole in the defense and was gone for a rollicking 89-yard run down the left sideline that made it 13-10 with 4:40 to go and brought life and noise to both the Tigers sideline and the Gardiner crowd behind it.

“I turned to the sideline and I said ‘This is momentum. This is where you start to turn it,’ ” White said. “You could feel the swing in the game.”

The upset hopes got another boost when Lawrence advanced to the Gardiner 30 in the waning minutes of the half but had to punt it away, but the Tigers let the chance slip through their hands when they fumbled the ball away at their own 15. The Bulldogs seized the opportunity, with Ballard slinging the pass to Dodge on a rollout for the 15-yard connection that upped the lead to two scores with less than a minute to go.

The Tigers wouldn’t get closer in the second half. The Bulldogs made sure of that.

“We started off slow, but we grinded,” Ballard said. “We have a tremendous amount of confidence, but we can’t overlook any opponent. We have to go in every week working harder than the last one, and keep on rolling.”

Drew Bonifant — 621-5638

dbonifant@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @dbonifantMTM

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