By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

Football coaches don’t just measure the passing of summer into autumn by the drop in temperature and the gradual balding of the trees. They look at game film.

Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin looks at recent film of his team’s Pine Tree Conference semifinal opponent, Oxford Hills, compares it to the Cougars’ 28-14 opening-night victory over the Vikings, and can tell that a lot has changed besides the landscape.

“It’s only eight weeks ago but it seems like a year ago,” Parlin said.

The Vikings are a different team, he said, but they haven’t made wholesale personnel changes or altered their schemes beyond recognition.

“There’s a lot that’s the same, but they’re better,” he said. “(Senior tailback) Jim Bower was a little banged up when we played them. I think their defensive line has come along much better, too.”

Bower and the defensive line could be the keys if the fourth-seeded Vikings (5-3) hope to upset the top-seeded Cougars (7-1) tonight (7, Caldwell Field).

One of the top runners in the PTC, Bower will have to move the chains if Oxford Hills wants to limit the opportunities for Mt. Blue’s offense, which tallied 243 points (30.4 ppg), by far the most in the league.

“It certainly worked for Skowhegan the other night,” Vikings coach Bob Austin said, referring to the Indians’ 24-21 win over the Cougars last week in which they limited Mt. Blue’s vaunted “Cougar Gun” to nine second-half plays. “We’d love to do that (but) we need to cut down on the turnovers this week.”

The Vikes lost four fumbles, including two by Bower, in their 21-14 loss to Bangor last week. It was an anomaly for an offense that has taken good care of the ball for most of the season when they’ve put it in Bowers’ hands or called on QB Ben Ryerson to go to the air.

Austin praised his senior quarterback’s ability to manage the game, but the Vikings are by no means conservative when they throw the ball. Ryerson has connected with wideout Ethan Sutton on a number of long bombs, and that concerns Parlin.

“They’re one of the few teams in our league that can throw deep. You can’t just load up on the run,” he said.

The Vikings finished third in the league in scoring (22.4 ppg), so while scoring hasn’t been a problem, getting the offense going early has been. They have been outscored in the first quarter, 44-12, with all 12 points coming in a win over Mt. Ararat two weeks ago.

“We’ve let people get ahead of us and we haven’t really gotten going until the second quarter or the second half,” said Austin. “You can’t afford to do that against a team like Mt. Blue.”

The Cougars boast the No. 2 defense in the PTC (17.4 ppg), and while that unit was bolstered by the return of linebacker Hazen Pingree and safety Jeff Davis from injury last week, it struggled to get off the field against Skowhegan after posting shutouts in the two previous games.

Pingree could also see time at fullback tonight and provide some relief for Mike Toothaker, who ran for three touchdowns in the teams’ first meeting. The Vikings’ improved defense, led by Ron Packard, Jake Cash and Logan Cromwell, will have its hands full containing senior QB Mason Barker, who threw for 126 yards and ran for 54 more in Week 1.

The other semifinal, No. 2 Skowhegan (6-2) hosts No. 3 Lawrence (6-2) is another rematch of a Week 1 contest. Lawrence won that game, 29-14. The Bulldogs’ offense has been decimated by injuries, but their season has been salvaged by the league’s top defense (7.8 ppg). That unit will be tested by an Indians running attack consisting of Aron Chambers, Lucas Cole and Josh Whiting that ran the ball 73 times for 334 yards against Mt. Blue last week.