FARMINGTON — For one football team Friday night, its season is going to end exactly where it began.
Fourth-seeded Mt. Blue High School (5-3) hosts No. 5 Cony High School (4-4) in a Pine Tree Conference B quarterfinal at Caldwell Field at 7 p.m. in a rematch from Week 1, but the stakes are obviously much higher than what they were when the Cougars picked up a 20-6 win on Sept. 4.
“We’re extremely confident knowing that our last meeting was at the same field. It was the first game of the season and we were a bit rough,” Cony senior wide receiver/defensive back Anthony Brunelle said. “We’ve come together recently and had a great night last Friday (a 40-0 win over Gardiner).”
The Rams are just one of a handful of local teams that will be in playoff action this weekend. In the Campbell Conference Class D, No. 5 Maranacook (4-3) travels to No. 4 Winthrop/Monmouth (4-3), while top-seeded Oak Hill (7-0) hosts No. 8 Traip (2-5).
For Cony, it is hoping for a much better showing this time around than when it played the Cougars in Week 1 and it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Rams do not have a better showing.
In addition to it being the first varsity start at quarterback for junior Taylor Heath, Cony was also without senior running back/linebacker Reid Shostak due to an injury in that first meeting. In the past three games, Shostak has run for 664 yards and nine touchdowns.
“Obviously, they present problems. We played them Week 1. They’re a lot better. They didn’t have their top player, Shostak, that week,” Mt. Blue coach Jim Aylward said following his team’s regular-season finale at Skowhegan. “We know they’re coming up ready to go.”
Mt. Blue, meanwhile, enters off its most challenging stretch of the season after suffering a pair of competitive losses to Brunswick (7-1) and Skowhegan (7-1). The Cougars found success in their win against the Rams — and throughout the season, for that matter — behind a three-pronged running attack of Christian Whitney, Alex Gilbert and Zach Meader.
“I feel like we’re doing really well but I feel like we’re even better than this,” Shostak said. “I think we’ll be contending deep into the playoffs.”
In Class D South, meanwhile, the Ramblers and Black Bears meet for the second time this season as well, with Winthrop/Monmouth winning 17-14 on Sept. 25 at Maxwell Field on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Matt Ingram to Ben Ames with 12 seconds remaining.
As was the case in the first meeting, the Ramblers know they will have to find a way to slow up Maranacook’s double wing offense when they face off Friday at 7 p.m. at Maxwell Field.
“(We have to) execute, hang onto the ball and everybody has to do their job defensively so that we don’t let them go up and down the field,” Ramblers coach Dave St. Hilaire said. “We want them to play with a long field and not a short field.”
One player the Ramblers will be keying on specifically is quarterback Kyle Morand.
“Morand is their best player, both sides of the ball. He’s a tough runner, he can throw the ball and when he gets down on the line he becomes their best defensive lineman,” St. Hilaire said. “We have to make sure we know where he is and make the plays to stop him.”
For the second time in as many weeks, Oak Hill will take on Traip, only this time the game will be in Wales at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Raiders scored a convincing 32-6 win in Kittery last week behind three touchdown passes from Dalton Therrien and are approaching Saturday’s quarterfinal in a similar fashion.
“Our goal is just to execute on every offensive and defensive set. We build on offense and we build on defense,” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said. “Sometimes people get too fancy. We are just keeping it simple and our goal is to get better on both sides of the ball.”
If the Raiders can avoid an upset, they will host either Maranacook or Winthrop/Monmouth in the semifinals Saturday, Nov. 7.
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
Send questions/comments to the editors.
