By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

Mike Remillard’s sentiments echoed from Lewiston to Brewer, from Turner to Hampden.

“We’re very happy, but we’re not satisfied now,” the Leavitt coach said following the Hornets’ prelim upset over Lewiston. “We have more work left to do, and everyone to a man in this locker room knows that.”

Leavitt, Brewer and Hampden Academy have written the first chapter of what each hopes is an engrossing Cinderella tale. Each pulled off upsets in the first round and each will have to pull off at least two more to be the final Eastern Class A champion in the history of the Bangor Auditorium.

The Hornets are making their first appearance ever in Bangor and meet Brewer in an unlikely quarterfinal pitting the No. 12 and No. 13 seeds in the Eastern A tournament, which opens Friday night with the quarterfinal between No. 6 Gardiner and No. 3 Brunswick and resumes Saturday with the other three quarterfinals.

Looming in the immediate and not-so-immediate future for the Cinderella wannabes are a couple of wicked step-brothers, No. 1 Bangor and No. 2 Oxford Hills, both of whom have plenty of incentive to take no prisoners.

Bangor has won three of the last five regional championships and wants to defend its home turf (though not officially its home court) one last time. Oxford Hills may or may not be haunted by last year’s tournament, when it was the once-beaten top seed and got blown out of the gym in the semifinals by No. 4 Bangor.

“We’re not talking about what happened last year, not at this point,” Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam said. “If we are fortunate enough to play Bangor, then we’ll talk about last year.”

Favorites: Bangor and Oxford Hills. The two teams appear to be on a collision course again. Make no mistake, the Vikings would like nothing more than another shot at the Rams. The feeling is probably mutual for Bangor, which suffered its only defeat at the hands of the Vikings back in January.

The Rams have the best one-two combination in the tournament with senior swingman Aaron Gallant and 6-7 junior Mark Socoby.

They also have 6-7 senior Andrew Trundy to clog up the middle and rebound and a heady floor leader and 3-point shooter in point guard Jordan Heath, who missed the first Oxford Hills game due to illness.

KVAC champion Oxford Hills starts five seniors and is the most athletic team in the tournament. Senior Matt McDonnell has taken his game to a new level in the second half of the season, and 6-4 twins Leif and Thomas Kothe lend plenty of support at both ends of the floor. Senior guard Josh Powell is also capable of having an impact at the offensive and defensive ends.

Dark horse: Brunswick. Ralph Mims is gone, of course, but the defending Eastern A champions won’t give up their crown without a fight. Don’t forget that the Dragons beat Cony in last year’s tournament with Mims glued to the bench with foul trouble for virtually the entire second half. They’re a scrappy, disciplined bunch that finds a way to dictate the flow against more talented teams. They have good size, athleticism, balance, a strong bench and a fair amount of tournament experience.

Players to watch: Bangor: Mark Socoby (jr. forward/guard), Aaron Gallant (sr. guard/forward); Oxford Hills: Matt McDonnell (sr. guard), Leif Kothe (sr. forward), Thomas Kothe (sr. forward); Brunswick: Doug Eichinger (jr. forward), Jesse Kaplan (sr. guard); Gardiner: Sean McNally (jr. center), Eric Collins (sr. guard); Cony: Doug Joerss (sr. forward); Hampden: Jordan Cook (jr. center), Josh McNutt (sr. guard); Leavitt: Jon Pirruccello (sr. center), Dan Berry (sr. guard), Brandon Powell (sr. forward); Brewer: Chris Wilson (jr. guard), Isaac Bell (sr. guard).

Best quarterfinal: No. 7 Cony (12-7) vs. No. 2 Oxford Hills (15-3) 11:05 a.m., Saturday: The Rams have beaten the Vikings twice in the last two years, including a 64-60 decision on Jan. 29. Joerss, who scored 22 in each of those wins, gives the Vikings fits with his athleticism and his ability to score inside and outside.

“Our focus will be on him, no question about it,” said Graffam. “We’re going to make sure somebody else on that team beats us this time.”

The Vikings have been playing excellent defense, allowing 43 points per game, and haven’t lost since bowing to Cony.

Overview: Perhaps the tone was set in the prelims, when three lower seeds won, and we’ll see a few upsets in the next couple of rounds. Don’t count on the top two seeds being the victims, though.

Oxford Hills certainly has the tougher bracket of the two, but the Vikings have the talent, coaching, experience and incentive to get through it.

Bangor is Bangor. Regardless of their roster or their weaker Big East schedule, you can count on a few things when the Rams play in Bangor Auditorium; they are going to be tough, smart, physical and intense. With Socoby, Gallant, Heath, a fine supporting cast, and Roger Reed at the controls, it’s hard to pick against the Rams, especially when they know this is the last tournament they’ll be playing at the Mecca.

Prediction: Bangor.