By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

The Pine Tree Conference may have added two former Class A powerhouses this year, but at the end of the regular season, a couple of Class B stalwarts stood the tallest.

The final Crabtree standings were released Monday, with Winslow and Leavitt earning the top two seeds in the playoffs, which will kick off this weekend.

The top four teams from the North and South divisions earning a spot in the postseason. The teams that qualified were seeded by their Crabtree points regardless of division.

Unbeaten Winslow, tops in the North, earned the No. 1 seed and will host No. 8 Oak Hill Saturday afternoon. Winslow handed Leavitt its only loss this year, so the Hornets, winners of the South, earned the No. 2 seed and will host No. 7 Hampden Saturday night.

The other two matchups feature the two PTC newcomers, Gardiner and Waterville. The sixth-seeded Tigers will travel to No. 3 Brewer, while the fifth-seeded Purple Panthers will meet Belfast.

Although his team had hopes of wresting the No. 1 seed from Winslow, Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said he was pleased with the Hornets’ position heading into the playoffs.

“We wanted home-field throughout. We haven’t lost all year at home, so it’s nice to have that for the first two rounds,” said Hathaway, whose Hornets have won seven straight since losing to Winslow in Week 1.

“To go 7-1, he added, “I wouldn’t say it was hugely surprising, but if you asked us at the beginning of the year where we’d be at this point, that would have been an optimistic view, I think.”

The Hornets benefited from a tough schedule, and not just in collecting Crabtree points.

“Winslow and Belfast were our crossovers, and we finished with Belfast, Waterville, Gardiner and Oak Hill, so it’s nice to see some of those teams that we’ve seen recently, too,” Hathaway said.

Absent from this year’s schedule, however, was Hampden, which last faced the Hornets in Week 1 of last season, an 18-16 Leavitt win. Hathaway and his coaching staff have their worked cut out for them familiarizing themselves with the current Broncos.

“They have a brand new coaching staff,” Hathaway said. “They have a lot of different personnel from last year, and they switched quarterbacks within the last couple of weeks.”

Oak Hill (3-5) also meets an unfamiliar foe in Winslow. The two schools last squared off in 2004, when Winslow walked away with a 40-7 win.

The Black Raiders were also an undefeated No. 1 seed the last time they met in the postseason in 2003. Oak Hill executed an onside kick on the opening kickoff and took a 7-0 lead just 14 seconds into the game. But Winslow went on to a 47-19 victory.

The Raiders’ berth exposed a flaw in the new playoff system, implemented by the conference’s athletic directors for the first time this year. Oak Hill finished fourth in the South with a final Crabtree index of 81.25. Mt. Desert Island finished fifth in the North but with a higher index (82.81) than Oak Hill. MDI beat the Raiders, 6-0, on Sept. 10 on a last-second interception return for a touchdown.