If the Lewiston Blue Devils want to be one of the elite teams in the Pine Tree Conference next year, coach Bill County says they need only look across the river to the team that handed them their only two losses this season, Edward Little.

“They had a lot of guys coming back and they had a great off-season, and that’s the challenge to my kids now,” County said. “We’re young and we return a lot of players and we’re going to see if we can rise to the occasion like they did.”

Lewiston will lose four senior starters on offense – tailback Wesley Myers, wide receivers Chuck Faletra and Tyler Lussier, and lineman Joe Bussiere. Quarterback Ronnie Turner, running backs Cody Dussault and Jeff Keene, and linemen Brady Esty, Ben Wigant, Jacob Tanguay and Kris Gagne are all underclassmen, as are key contributors such as Dante Bailey, Tyler Nunez, Monte Scott and Peter Blais.

Hornets’ nest will be full

Leavitt, like Lewiston, saw its season end in the regional semifinals last week after a 7-0 loss to Morse. The top-seeded Hornets lost to the fifth-seeded Shipbuilders fourth straight time, dating back to 2005.

“It’s tough, especially when you coach a group of great kids like we did here. I love my team. I wouldn’t trade them for anybody,” an emotional Hathaway said. “They had a great season and they’ve worked real hard.”

Like Lewiston, the Hornets will have a strong nucleus back to make another run next year. Running back Tyler Green, split end Kolin Gauthier and tackles Doug Nash and Zach Renaud are the only offensive starters headed for graduation. Quarterback Eric Theiss and running backs Josh Strickland and Jon Letourneau are expected to return for their senior seasons, along with tight end Buck Bochtler, split end Cam Griffin and linemen Matt Pellerin, Mitch Cobb and Luke Wiley.

The Hornets will lose three all-conference defensive players, Nash, Kolby Youland and Landry Turner, but will still have a number of key contributors back, including Letourneau, Pellerin, Griffin and Jordan Hersom.

Winthrop thriving with second chances

If you want to put the symbolic Gold Ball in your trophy case on the fourth weekend in November, you’d better not invite any appearances by the gold handkerchief on the second Friday or third Saturday.

Winthrop’s closest brush with disaster during an undefeated regular season in the Campbell Conference was a flag-filled performance at home against Livermore Falls. The game was in an unexpected scoreless tie at halftime before the Ramblers reduced their mistakes and skulked away with a 16-0 victory.

“The first time we had 11 penalties that negated almost 200 yards, but whatever,” said Winthrop coach Joel Stoneton. Those are excuses. We got the game (Friday) and that was important.”

Given a second chance two weeks later in the Western Class C semifinals, Winthrop was whistled only four times. The Ramblers didn’t have to duplicate many of their offensive fireworks due to holds, blocks in the back or illegal motion. Instead, they forced mistakes – five turnovers in all – in a 44-0 rout of the Andies.

It mirrored last year’s semifinal performance, when Winthrop avenged its only loss of the regular season with a one-sided victory over Old Orchard Beach. But everyone in green remembers what happened a week later, when Boothbay reversed an earlier verdict and knocked off Winthrop 28-21 in the regional final.

Winthrop eased to a 24-6 win over Saturday’s championship opponent, Lisbon, only two weeks ago. Last year’s memory isn’t allowing anyone to get comfortable.

“We just wanted to get back and get another shot at it,” Stoneton said.