ORONO, Maine — The cooperation at the foundation of the annual joint Senior Night game between the Orono and John Bapst of Bangor high school football teams will give way to a clear sense of urgency when the LTC Class D rivals meet Thursday evening in their mutual regular-season finale at the University of Maine.
A postseason berth is at stake.
“Our information is the loser goes home and the winner advances, so it’s a big game, no question about it,” said Orono coach Bob Sinclair. “One team is going to win and go on and the other team is going to put their stuff away.”
John Bapst enters the 7 p.m. contest with a 5-2 record while Orono is 4-3. Based on strength of schedule considerations associated with the Crabtree point system used to seed teams for postseason play, barring any major upsets there’s room for only one of the two in the four-team LTC playoffs that begin next weekend.
Undefeated and top-seeded Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield (8-0) has completed its schedule while second-ranked Bucksport (6-1) and Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln (4-3) also are poised to secure postseason slots.
So after sharing the stage during pregame ceremonies at Alfond Stadium, more selfish goals will motivate what follows.
“The way we’re approaching this game is that this is the quarterfinals and it’s time to win or go home,” said John Bapst coach Dan O’Connell.
Orono and John Bapst began staging joint Senior Night at UMaine in 2010, taking advantage of the stadium setting to make the event more memorable for the participants.
“The first time we did this in 2010,” said Sinclair, “I walked out on that field, looked around and thought, ‘Holy cow, I thought we were in New York City,’ because it’s just a beautiful facility to play in and a great venue for football.”
The teams have split four regular-season contests at the neutral site, with Orono also winning a postseason matchup there in a 2011 LTC semifinal.
In 2011, the rivalry was shifted from Friday to Thursday to avoid potential scheduling conflicts with UMaine sporting events.
“We’ve created an event over the last four years that’s certainly special for both groups of seniors, and I think we’ve worked well with Orono and vice versa to create this early-in-the-week game that’s become a tradition,” said O’Connell. “I think both schools are happy about that and respectful of the idea that we’re rivals but it’s great to be able to come together and do this for the kids.
“But certainly once we kick the ball off one team’s going to win and one team is going to lose, and both teams want to be in the playoffs. So as respectful and as shared as the game might be, we want to execute and beat them and they want to execute and beat us and that’s just the reality of competition,” he added.
Both teams rely heavily on formidable rushing attacks. John Bapst features Jackson Leonard, one of the LTC’s top ground gainers with 1,254 yards and 15 touchdowns after a 285-yard, five-TD performance in a 43-36 win at Mount View of Thorndike last Saturday.
“Leonard is a real good football player,” said Sinclair. “He’s a classic I-formation tailback and they like to get him the ball, so one challenge is going to be to contain him. Their quarterback [Spencer Baron] throws the ball well and he’s got a big tight end in [Harrison] Dieuveuil that they look to but you’ve got to slow down Leonard a little bit.”
Orono, which hosted Medomak Valley of Waldoboro in an exhibition game last Friday, counters with a deep rushing contingent that includes Matt Fowler (578 yards, five TDs), Keenan Collett (503 yards, six TDs) and Tom Lucy (403 yards, five TDs) and is directed by sophomore quarterback Jackson Coutts (four rushing TDs, six passing TDs).
“They continue to do what they do well,” said O’Connell. “Coach Sinclair always says to coach what you know, and they run that T offense and nobody runs it quite like they do in our league.
“They’re disciplined on offense and then they run coach’s 5-3 defense where you might know where they’re going to line up but they play a hard, physical brand of football and they’re disciplined in doing it so you’ve got to be ready,” he added.
Deans named Bucksport coach
Larry Deans, who guided the Bucksport boys basketball program to its most recent Eastern Maine championship, has returned as the Golden Bucks’ head coach.
Deans recently was appointed to replace Josh Tripp, who left after six seasons after being named principal of Bucksport Middle School.
Bruce Lindberg originally was hired as Tripp’s replacement but stepped away in late August after being selected to serve as interim principal at Ellsworth High School for 2014-15.
Deans was Bucksport’s head coach for three years from 1996 to 1999 and led the Golden Bucks to the Eastern B championship during the 1996-97 season.
Deans also has coached girls basketball teams at both the Ellsworth and George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill and was an assistant at Waterville.
Deans has been a volunteer assistant basketball coach at Bucksport for the last four seasons.
Now in Eastern Maine Class C, Bucksport finished ninth in its division last winter with a 9-9 record. It defeated Piscataquis of Guilford in a preliminary game before falling to eventual state champion Houlton in the quarterfinals.
