JAY – Strength vs. speed. Power vs. finesse. Running vs. passing. Livermore Falls vs. Jay.

It’s a classic football matchup set in a classic football rivalry. The Campbell Conference will be decided with a rare day game today at Taglienti Field with thousands expected to witness the 1:30 p.m. kickoff.

Travelers’ advisory – avoid Route 4 in Jay or Livermore Falls early and late this afternoon. These neighboring towns are buzzing with anticipation for their first matchup of such consequence since the two schools met in back-to-back championship games in 1990 and 1991 (with each winning one).

“It’s definitely a unique situation, the two schools being this close and everyone knows everyone and sees each other all week long,” said Jay coach Mark Bonnevie. “You can’t got to the store or anywhere to escape it.”

“To have two towns this close together, with such small schools, and still be so competitive is unbelievable,” said Livermore Falls coach Brad Bishop. “Obviously, you’ve got two different styles of football going at it. It’s going to come down to who makes the fewest mistakes.”

Jay (10-0) made the fewest mistakes the last time the two team’s met, two weeks ago, and thus walked away with a 28-14 win to hand Livermore Falls (9-1) its only loss of the season.

The game was closer than its final score, and the Andies know that they missed a couple of golden scoring opportunities on a pair of fourth-and-goals, one from the Tiger 4-yard line and the other from the 2.

The Andies also believe they aided the Tigers with two key mistakes which led to Tiger touchdowns.

“We hurt ourselves twice – on a fake punt and a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty (on a Jay punt return),” Bishop said. “But you’ve got to give Jay credit. They made the plays when they had to.”

Most of those plays Jay made came in third-and-long and fourth-and-long situations. The Tigers helped get themselves into those long-yardage spots by dropping several of Justin Wells’ passes, but they came up big in the later downs because the offensive line protected the quarterback and gave the receivers time to find openings in Livermore’s secondary.

“Justin is so well-schooled. He just reads the defense so well,” Bonnevie said. “If something’s not there, he can check down, which is something you don’t get in high school. He definitely has an uncanny ability to find that open guy.”

Jay’s receivers, Ryan DiPompo, Andrew Deering, Adam DeSanctis and running back Joel Ouellette, seem to have an uncanny ability to get open, too.

Defensively, Jay would like to turn the tables on Livermore and get the Andies, whose passing game is much more limited, into long-yardage holes. The Tigers, who have allowed the second-fewest points in the state this year to Brewer (6.9 per game), were able to contain Boothbay’s vaunted running game in last week’s 34-20 semifinal win, holding the Seahawks to six first downs and under 200 total yards on the ground.

“That is definitely a big key,” said Jay coach Mark Bonnevie. “Livermore is like Boothbay, even though their offense is a little bit different as far as formations go (Boothbay runs the double-wing, Livermore the Wing-T). It’s the same philosophy – eating the clock up and grinding it out.”

Jay has shown the last two weeks that it can chew up some clock in key spots, too. They picked up some key first downs late in their first meeting with Livermore. Last week, with the wind wreaking havoc on the passing game, sophomore fullback Trevor McCourt ran for 95 yards and three touchdowns.

“If need be, we can run the ball,” Bonnevie said. “Friday night against Boothbay, with the weather the way it was, throwing the ball in the fourth quarter was basically out of the question, and we moved the ball just as well on the ground as we have through the air.”

The Andies shredded Lisbon for 321 rushing yards last week in their 28-6 semifinal victory. Running behind a big, strong offensive line led by Tom Durrell and Matt Brochu, fullback Brad Bryant collected 163 yards and halfback Ryan Webster 152 yards on their way to two touchdowns apiece. The defense, meanwhile, held Lisbon to just 14 total yards in the second half.

“That was our best game of the year,” Bishop said. “I was more worried about that game and how we were going to bounce back (from the the Jay game), but we really did.”

“Jay is very quick, but I thought we played well at times the last time,” he added. “We’ve just got to play a more complete game.”