The Western C semifinals will start off as a repeat of last year’s semifinals, but the two teams enjoying home field advantage this year are hoping for a different ending.

Jay, Livermore Falls, Lisbon and Boothbay are in the playoffs, just like in 2003. This time, though, Lisbon and Boothbay will be making the bumpy late afternoon bus rides north, hoping to pull off upsets over two teams who, until one week ago, both enjoyed unblemished records.

“It’s nice being home,” said Mark Bonnevie, coach of the still undefeated Jay Tigers. “You don’t have to change your routine a whole lot. The kids can go home after school and relax and you don’t have to get on the bus and drive, in Boothbay’s case, an hour and a half.”

The top-seeded Tigers will be looking to avenge last year’s 43-6 rout at the hands of the Seahawks. The Andies were shut out, 26-0, by the Greyhounds, who then went on to beat Boothbay on their way to the Western C championship.

Both of last year’s victims gained a measure of revenge this year, winning their respective regular season games with their respective nemesis. Revenge would be sweeter, however, served in the cold and the sudden death stakes of the playoffs.

No. 4 Boothbay (6-3) at No. 1 Jay (9-0), 7 p.m.

The Tiger defense starred in Jay’s 22-14 win over the Seahawks back on Sept. 17, bending but rarely breaking against the fabled Boothbay double-wing.

“Their offense is something every coach in the league has nightmares about and it’s going to take a tremendous effort again, like it did in September, to slow it down,” Bonnevie said.

Not much has slown it down of late. Paced by D.J. Holcomb and Casey Latter, the Seahawks are averaging 47 points per game since their rare three-game losing streak to Jay, Livermore and Lisbon in midseason. Jay’s speedy defense, led by Mike Nemi, Ryan Bourassa, Joel Ouellette and Shane Gagnon, will have to read its keys and fill the running lanes quickly.

The Tigers haven’t been scoring at quite the same clip as the Seahawks, but few would disagree that they are the most consistently dangerous offense in the league. Justin Wells has thrown for over 1,500 yards and 15 TDs and didn’t have a pass picked off until the fourth quarter of last week’s game against Livermore Falls. Ryan DiPompo, Andrew Deering and Adam DeSanctis are the top targets in a deep receiving corps.

The Tigers will balance things out with their running game, led by sophomore Trevor McCourt, who has over 500 yards and 10 touchdowns on the year. Though predisposed to the pass, Bonnevie is confident his ground game can get the Tigers the tough yards when they need them.

“When it counted (against Livermore), when we stopped them at the six-inch line (in the fourth quarter), when we needed to eat clock and get a first down on the ground, we got it,” Bonnevie said.

No. 3 Lisbon (7-2) at No. 2 Livermore Falls (8-1), 7 p.m.

These two teams hooked up in a 14-13 nail-biter back on Oct. 15, with the Andies prevailing on a Brad Bryant 1-yard TD run with 25 seconds left.

Bryant, a senior fullback, accounted for 244 of the Andies’ 270 yards on offense that night.

“You can’t really defend him. He’s going to get his yardage,” said Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan. “The first game, he came up with a lot of eight yard runs on first down. When you get eight yards on first down, it makes everything else easy.”

Livermore Falls coach Brad Bishop thinks its just as important for his team to keep Lisbon’s running backs, Levi Ervin and Jacob Sprinkle, from gaining significant yards on first down in order to make things more difficult for QB Chris Kates with second-and-long and third-and-long situations.

“Even though they like to throw, I really think things revolve around their running game,” Bishop said. “We need to keep it simple and keep everything in front of us.”