For the past 10 weeks, my wife and many others have been complaining about being football widows.

Well, ladies, we’re free this Friday night. Next Friday night, too. We’re all yours.

Saturday is the day to get out of the house and watch some high school football. We’ve got six championship games spread out from Saco to Mt. Desert. The LTC, PTC, SMAA and Campbell Conference wil be handing out the hardware, which is sportswriter talk for playing their championship games.

If you ask me, and a few other high school football diehards, this is the real Super Saturday.

We’ve got three of those games within the broad confines of the Sun Journal’s speculation, uh, circulation, the most we’ve had in any championship weekend since 2005. That means more of you can heckle your favorite SJ correspondents. Just look for the least athletic guy on the sidelines wearing glasses and holding a clipboard.

Two of the three games have heavy favorites. The third game is the only one not involving an unbeaten top seed. If you look at the predictions to the right, you’ll see that at least one of us thinks those games will run the gamut from blowout to double-overtime thriller. Allow me to explain:

PTC: Skowhegan at Edward Little

Last week, the Red Eddies reminded me of the Oakland Raiders (the great Silver-and-Black swashbucklers of the 1970s, not the laughingstock franchise of today). If Al Davis were still alive, he’d love these guys. Against Lewiston, the Eddies’ defense lived up to his credo, “The quarterback must go down and he must go down hard,” The offense conjured up memories of Lamonica-to-Biletnikoff and Stabler-to-Branch. When in doubt, throw it deep. Ah, heck, just throw it deep no matter what.

EL coach Darren Hartley did some home work last week. He broke down the Eddies’ last five games by down and distance. Then he watched three college games that week, such as the Virginia Tech/Maryland game last Thursday, and charted what those teams did on first and second downs (Mrs. Hartley, perhaps you and my wife should talk). .

Hartley showed me and colleague Kalle Oakes the chart after the win over Lewiston. Written above all the data were four simple words, Hartley’s conclusion, you might call it:

“Throw On First Down!!!”

EL threw the ball to open its first three drives against Lewiston and passed on first down four times overall in the first half. They will do it again Saturday against Skowhegan. They have the one weapon no other team in the Pine Tree Conference had this season, the right arm of Cody Goddard, and they intend to use it. Add in his big, athletic receiving corps and the talents of the running backs and one has to believe the Indians haven’t seen anything like the Edward Little offense this year.

But the Eddies haven’t seen anything like Billy Clark, either, which has to be a big concern because their run defense has been inconsistent all year. He’s as capable of ripping off a 75 yard run to paydirt as Goddard is of hooking up with Shane Ciriello or Dominique Bailey on a bomb.

Skowhegan’s preferred m.o., though, is to gouge you with the double-wing and wear you down with long drives. One of EL’s strengths is its depth, and that may ultimately make the difference at Walton Field.

Campbell Conference Class B: Cape Elizabeth at Mountain Valley

The Capers and Falcons square off in the Western B final for the third straight year, and the Capers are hoping the third time is going to be the charm.

It isn’t.

No doubt, the 34-6 score is not indicative of how much of a fight they put up against the Falcons two weeks ago. The Capers hung around for the first three quarters and constantly shot themselves in the foot with fumbles and penalties that night, especially with two touchdowns that were called back due to flags. Ezra Wolfinger leads a capable enough passing attack that can give Mountain Valley problems. Tom Foden, who had 325 total yards and three TDs last week against York, is a big play waiting to happen every time he touches the ball. And certainly the Capers have played in enough big games against the Falcons to not be intimidated.

But one thing the Capers don’t have is the same type of physical mentality they had last year, let alone the same physical mentality the Falcons have been playing with since Jim Aylward first hung a whistle around his neck. The offensive line, led by Ryan Laubauskas and Cole Clark, and the ridiculously-talented linebacking corps of Matt Laubauskas, Matt Duka and Travis Ruff, set the physical tone on the field, and they will set it early on Saturday. That’s usually when Justin Staires steps in, when the opponent is reeling from the first punch in the mouth, and starts scoring touchdowns. Doesn’t matter if he’s on offense, defense, special teams or selling programs, he’ll find the end zone. And that’s not even counting the three or four touchdowns involving some combination of Ruff, Matt Laubauskas and Cam Kaubris.

Cape would need to score four touchdowns to have a prayer to win this game. They’re not reaching three against this defense. They’ve got a lot of juniors coming back for next year, though.

Campbell Conference Class C: Lisbon at Winthrop

Like Cape and Mountain Valley, these two teams met just two weeks ago. But instead of pulling away late like the Falcons did, the Ramblers jumped out on the Greyhounds early and let their stifling defense take care of the rest in a 24-6 win.

Lisbon at least knows it can score on Winthrop, something few other teams in the league could do this year. In fact, I wouldn’t be shocked if Lisbon doubled its production of two weeks ago. I’m a firm believer that the coaching troika of Dick Mynahan, Stacen Doucette and Randy Ridley, which does its best work preparing the Greyhounds for these big games, has a few wrinkles ready that the `Hounds didn’t show two weeks ago.

And I can say with just as much conviction that Nate Blackwell, whether he’s kicking away from Jake Steele or not, will not have three punts of 10 yards and under as he did at Thompson Field the day after Halloween.

The Greyhounds thrive on turning these big games into battles of field position, waiting for a turnover or some other mistake to turn the game in their favor.

That’s what will keep them close, for awhile at least. But you can only slam your head into a brick wall so many times before you start walking around frustrated and a little dazed and confused. In this case, Winthrop’s defense is the brick wall. They posted their fifth shutout against Livermore Falls last week.

Lisbon isn’t nearly as predictable as Livermore Falls, of course, but size and speed can make up a lot for surprises, and the Ramblers have a good amount of both. They also have the offense to put enough distance between themselves and the Greyhounds late.