Forget apples and oranges. Stacking up Winthrop and John Bapst side-by-side on the Class C football championship menu is the equivalent of comparing prime rib and filet mignon.

Each flaunted the most diverse, explosive offense in its division. The same playmakers highlight both defenses.

From the indignity of losses in the regional finals last fall, the Ramblers and Crusaders closed ranks, rallied around a double-digit roster of seniors and took their conferences by storm.

Class C being the widespread, small-town community it is, blanketing the state from Kittery to Millinocket, there are no common opponents by which to weigh two uncommon teams. The result has been seven days of partisan wrangling about the virtues of East versus West, Campbell against Little Ten.

All the chatter stops at 2:30 p.m. today, when Winthrop (11-0) and John Bapst (10-1) stand toe-to-toe for the most unpredictable Class C summit in years at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.

“I don’t see how people determine who’s the better conference,” said Winthrop coach Joel Stoneton. “There was a pretty good pool of talent I thought one through five here (in the Campbell Conference). Apparently people think it was one through eight over there.”

The teams actually did meet two years ago, the last time Class C used crossover games due to a shortage of teams in the East. Winthrop waltzed to a 31-6 victory.

Winthrop and Bapst represent the nouveau riche in Class C football. Since the state finals switched to the one-site “Super Saturday” format in 2002, the small-school final typically has been an annual pairing of Lisbon or Boothbay against Foxcroft Academy.

The Ramblers enjoyed the more recent success of the two programs, reaching three consecutive Western Maine finals from 1999 to 2001 and winning the Gold Ball in 2000. But Winthrop then endured lean times on the gridiron and tragedy off it. Five seasons without a playoff victory paled in comparison to the death of six former football players between the ages of 15 and 24, five by suicide.

Under Stoneton – as evidence of a small world, he attended Bapst for two years before graduating from Winthrop in 1992 – the Ramblers have regained their swagger with renewed perspective.

“We went down to Portland on Monday for the coaches’ meeting, and I haven’t stopped smiling,” said Stoneton, whose father, Jim, is treasurer of the John Bapst board of directors. “I’d never stepped on Fitzy before. I stood on that field and I felt the electricity coming through my feet of all that football tradition.”

Winthrop aims to win its seventh Class C championship and its first on the FieldTurf. In addition to its 2000 shutout of Maine Central Institute at Keyes Field in Fairfield, the Ramblers took home the hallowed trophy in 1957, 1959, 1968, 1970 and 1975.

Shutdown defense and a relentless running game empower the latest link in that chain. Winthrop’s defensive numbers are borderline ridiculous: Seven shutouts; averages of 92 yards and three first downs allowed per game; 27 forced turnovers.

Ends Kevin Hart (11 sacks, six fumble recoveries) and Josh Confer (four of each), linebackers Andrew Smithgall, Jake Steele and Skyler Whaley (264 combined tackles) and Zach Farrington (three interceptions) headline the smothering group. They’ve supplied the Ramblers’ offense with a short field throughout the season, not that Winthrop needs such accommodations.

Breakaway threats Steele (791 yards, nine touchdowns), Joe Morey (609 yards, eight TDs), Riley Cobb (448 yards, five TDs) and fullback/closer Whaley (447 yards, 14 TDs) have split carries so successfully that it looks intentional. Not one has lugged the leather over 90 times. All four may boast a TD run of more than 60 yards.

“There are a lot of eerie similarities between the two teams. We both like to share the ball,” said John Bapst coach Dan O’Connell. “They have three great running backs even before you talk about their bruising fullback. The quarterback has great command of the offense and can throw the ball to multiple receivers.”

Although the Ramblers haven’t needed him as much this season, QB Jordan Conant (10 TD passes) remains a threat to attack through the air at will. Smithgall and Jason Raymond are his primary targets.

Bapst, seeking its fourth state championship overall but its first since 1976, strikes a balance with senior quarterback Derek Smith (1,922 passing yards, 28 total TDs), tailback Bill Wetherbee (1,183 yards) and fullback Chase Huckestein.

The Crusaders also flaunt flexibility in that backfield. In last week’s Eastern C final over Bucksport, Huckestein, a former quarterback, lined up in the fashionable ‘Wildcat’ formation and tossed a touchdown pass to Smith, who started at split end as a junior.

“That’s a situation where we realize that we have one of the best receivers in our conference on our team, and he can’t throw the ball to himself,” O’Connell said. “(Smith) is very, very athletic. He’s a gamer. He’s everything you want in a quarterback.”

While its defense can’t rival Winthrop’s numbers, Bapst’s improvement over the second half of the season was dramatic. Bucksport scored 40 points in a season-opening win over Bapst but mustered only 14 last week. LB Tim Armistead and DT Chris Desmond have helped lead the renaissance.

Bapst’s commute from Bangor is the longest for any of the six state finalists, sealing the afternoon time slot for the ‘C’ game.

“We’re happy with it. Eleven o’clock (on a normal Saturday) these guys are still sleeping,” Stoneton said. “Two-thirty, you get a little bit of the warmth. Six o’clock I think is going to be brutally cold.”

No worries. By sundown, one of the resurgent powers will feel nothing but the warm glow of a championship celebration and the weight of a conference’s pride off its shoulders.