Daylight saving time is set to end this weekend, but for two local football teams they will be looking to set the clocks back even further than an hour.
Cony and Oak Hill High Schools both wrapped up the regular season in their respective conferences with impressive wins Friday and Saturday, respectively, and the two defending champs are gearing up for what they hope is another long playoff run.
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Once again, the Rams ended the regular season as the No. 2 seed at 6-2 in Pine Tree Conference B and in the process earned a bye into the conference semifinals. There they will meet the winner of No. 3 Lawrence (6-2) and No. 6 Brewer (4-4), and whoever advances can expect to get all they can handle from Cony.
“We feel great,” Cony junior running back/linebacker Reid Shostak said. “We’re ready for it.”
Looking at the way the Rams have played over the past month it is hard imagine that they started the season 1-2. After grinding out a 24-13 win over Messalonskee in its opener, Cony dropped a 46-40 decision at Brewer without senior captain Tayler Carrier and suffered a 52-27 loss at home to top-seeded Brunswick.
Since then, however, the Rams have been on a roll.
During its five-game win streak to end the season Cony has scored an average of 32.2 points per game while only allowing 10.8 points per contest — with a 22-21 win over Greely on Oct. 17 the only game decided by less than 17 points.
“(We’ve come a long way) defensively, for sure,” Cony coach Robby Vachon said. “We’ve been pretty good offensively all year.”
Oak Hill (7-1 Western D Campbell Conference), meanwhile, has not lost since dropping a 14-6 decision at home to Dirigo on Sept. 13 — a game that starting tail back/linebacker Kyle Flaherty left late in the first quarter with a hamstring injury, no less.
The Raiders enter the postseason having won six in a row and have done so in dominant fashion. Oak Hill is scoring 38.8 points per contest and allowing just five points per game, which includes Saturday’s convincing 28-14 win over previously unbeaten Lisbon.
Despite their play down the stretch, the Raiders will still only be the No. 3 seed as playing one more game than the rest of the conference hurt their Crabtree Index, leading them to finish behind both Lisbon (6-1) and Dirigo (6-1). Oak Hill will host Maranacook in the opening round of the Western Class D playoffs.
“We’re just going to have to work hard (this) week,” Flaherty said. “We’re going back to work on Monday.”
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Given how competitive PTC B has been all season it was only fitting that playoff seeding was on the line in the conference’s final regular season game Saturday night when Mt. Blue hosted Skowhegan.
The Indians had already been eliminated from postseason contention prior to kickoff, while Mt. Blue could at best host Messalonskee in a home playoff game as the No. 4 seed with a win.
The two teams with the most at stakes, however, were Cony and Lawrence.
The strength of schedule was so close between the two 6-2 teams that the outcome of Saturday’s contest would determined who had a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed and who would host Brewer this weekend.
“It was kind of hard to not cheer for Skowhegan openly. (Assistant coach B.L. Lippert) had to keep me in check a couple times,” Vachon said. “We’re happy to be where we’re sitting right now.”
The Indians’ 26-21 win gave Cony the edge in strength of schedule by a single game, since Cony had played Skowhegan but not Mt. Blue during the regular season.
As a result, the Rams will have two weeks to prepare for their next opponent and also assured themselves that the semifinal round will be played at Alumni Field.
“I like it for the preparation for one thing. It gives you an extra week to get healthy, work on technique and make sure that you’re prepared for your opponent the following week,” Vachon said. “We’re in the same situation as last year and our kids have responded pretty well.”
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Speaking of playoff seeding, now that the regular season has ended it is much clearer to see what effect Traip’s vacated victories had on the rest on the Western D Campbell Conference.
As far as the top four seeds are concerned, not so much.
Traip would have finished 3-4 without the forfeits, yet Lisbon, Dirigo, Oak Hill and Old Orchard Beach would still have been the top four seeds, respectively, and hosted home playoff games in the opening round.
Their opponents, though, would have likely been different.
In the scenario sans forfeits Traip and Winthrop/Monmouth would have finished with the exact same Crabtree Index. Given that the two did not play each other during the regular season, the No. 5 seed would have been determined by a coin flip.
The winner of that tiebreaker would travel to Old Orchard Beach, while the loser would go to Oak Hill. Maranacook and Boothbay would be the final two seeds and would travel to take on Dirigo and Lisbon, respectively.
Regardless of how things could have or actually played out, the competition for the Campbell Conference crown appears to still be a three-team race.
Dirigo beat Oak Hill early in the season but then lost to Lisbon, while Saturday the Raiders scored a convincing win over the Greyhounds at Thompson Field. For each of the three front runners their lone losses came on their home fields, so it certainly promises to be an interesting finish in Western D.
“It doesn’t matter where we stand because we know where we’re going and how we’re going to do it,” Oak Hill quarterback Dalton Therrien said.
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While many local teams are gearing up for the playoffs this weekend, Gardiner’s 2014 campaign came to a close with Friday night’s 41-0 loss to Cony at Hoch Field.
The 2-6 record may not have been quite what the Tigers had hoped for, yet head coach Matt Burgess still saw his team make improvements after Gardiner went 0-8 in 2013.
“The kids made some great strides in some areas. They learned how to win again, which was important early on,” Burgess said. “In the way that this senior group of kids plugged away each week is something to be admired. It’s a real good group of seniors. They’re all very good young men.”
The Tigers say goodbye to 12 seniors, most of whom were regular contributors for Gardiner. Captains Jake Truman, Andrew Doody Veilleux and Adrian Heath were each two-way starters, while Hamish Thornton, Brad Weston, Wyatt Blair, Ryan Woodman, Tyler Caron, Chase Begin, Treavon Horton, Josh McKelvey and Matt McKenna played important roles as well.
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday,com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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