I’d like first to take this opportunity to applaud my colleague Kalle Oakes, Lewiston AD Jason Fuller or anyone else with the time, patience or know-how to crank the Crabtree standings out the instant the clock on the Pine Tree Conference regular season ran out. Another autumn that I – or other high school football fans who slept through algebra – don’t have to dust off the calculator is another autumn well spent.

Now that they’ve put in all the hard work and given us the matchups on paper, we all can pick the docket apart like Tom Brady picking apart the Miami secondary.

With the bigger boys in A going back to the eight-team format this year, we’ve got double the quarterfinal action we had this time last year. And double a quarter of anything can’t be more than half bad, right? (I stayed awake for fractions and that was it.)

The tournaments begin Friday night in stops from Bath to Bangor. Both A and B brackets have clear favorites, Lawrence and Gardiner, respectively. I have not seen either play this year, but I do know that if, indeed, the chalk prevails over the next three weekends, both will have earned free admission to Fitzpatrick Stadium and access to the Portland Expo locker rooms in November.

If the favorites do prevail in Class A, then we’re looking at Lewiston/Bangor and Skowhegan/Lawrence semifinals. I’ve missed the last three Lewiston/Bangor games and kicked myself for three days after each one. I’m not missing another. Not that going to Fairfield would be akin to being exiled to Siberia. The Indians are one of the few teams to push the Bulldogs into the fourth quarter this season.

But let’s say Mt. Blue, Brunswick, Cony and/or Mt. Ararat throws a monkey wrench into that nice, neat bracket. It has been known to happen, hasn’t it? You haven’t forgotten just because we haven’t had quarterfinals Class A for a couple of years, have you?

I honestly don’t think it’s going to happen this time, although if I had to pick one, I’d give the nod to Mt. Ararat pulling a shocker in Skowtown. They’re obviously going to have to shore up the run defense this week, though. Skowhegan’s Zack Whiting went for 349 yards on eight carries back in Week 2.

An upset in Class B seems more plausible on paper but less likely the closer one looks into it. Old Town has some quality wins this year but may be too depleted to knock off a scuffling Winslow team. No. 7 Oak Hill vs. No. 2 Morse is an interesting match-up. The good news is the Raiders know very well what they need to do — stop Darrus Grate. The bad news is they know because the Morse tailback went for 224 yards on 17 carries Friday night.

The 4 vs. 5 game is always a natural place to begin with consideration because it’s often debateable when those two teams haven’t faced each other during the regular season which team is actually better. Waterville is on a roll, having won four straight, including fellow playoff qualifiers Belfast and Winslow, and has one of most dangerous QBs in Eastern B in Dan Hussey. Leavitt has an even more dangerous man in and out of the pocket in Evan Barker, and he has more weapons around him, though there is some question as to the health of two of them, Tyler Green and Josh Strickland, following Friday night’s loss to Gardiner. But for what they may have lost on offense, the Hornets defense may have picked up some much-needed confidence in holding the potent Tigers to 14 points.

Come to think of it, a Leavitt-Gardiner rematch wouldn’t be so bad for the semifinals. And we haven’t been treated to a Morse/Winslow match-up yet this year. When you look at it that way, the chalk in Class B looks pretty good, too.