AUBURN — Besides avoiding whatever Mother Nature has in store for us Saturday, Lewiston and Edward Little also mitigated something else when they moved the 166th Battle of the Bridge up 18 hours — suspense.

Had they played at the originally scheduled time rather than 7 p.m. Friday at Walton Field, Lewiston and a few other interested parties might have had to wait until late Saturday afternoon to learn who earned the fourth spot in the Pine Tree Conference standings and, with that, the final home game when the playoffs start next weekend. But, should Lewiston beat EL and should Messalonskee fall to Lawrence Friday night, the Devils will go into Saturday knowing they will be playing at Don Roux Field next week.

“It is pretty meaningful for us,” Lewiston coach Bill County said. “Obviously, we won’t know how that other game is going until after ours is done, but it would be nice to stay home for a night instead of going away.”

Besides the comforts of home, Lewiston (5-2) will be motivated by revenge. Edward Little (1-6) beat the Blue Devils twice last season. The first victory, in the regular season finale, assured home field advantage when the rivals met again two weeks later in the PTC semifinals. EL won that game, too, to close Lewiston’s all-time lead in the series to 87-66-12.

One year ago, EL was playing for playoff position. Friday night, the Red Eddies (1-6) will be trying to end a disappointing season on an upbeat note. The season has been marked by injuries, ineligibility, suspensions, and gut-wrenching losses. Beating Lewiston gives the Eddies, particularly the seniors, one last shot at redemption.

“For everything we’ve been through, through all the suffering, there are 17 guys gone from our program since Aug. 17,” EL coach Darren Hartley said. “That’s frustrating. There are a lot of reasons for it, and I feel like my seniors have been robbed of having back-to-back seasons of competitive, winning football.”

Despite their record, EL can present a number of problems for Lewiston. Junior quarterback Teven Colon has big-play ability with his arm and legs, while tailback Brandon Vye, the PTC’s eighth-leading rusher (613 yards, six TD’s) has been a workhorse.

“Darren has really diversified what they can do offensively,” County said. “They’ve shown some T-formation, some power-I, he spreads the field. I think Brandon is the key. I think he tries to get him the ball in space in a position where he can do some good things.”

Hartley said Lewiston’s defense, led by Kris Gagne, Ben Wigant and Tyler Nunez, has the quickness to narrow the field for Vye and Colon.

“They have a great east-west defense. This group really can fly defensively,” he said. “They proved that up in Lawrence a couple of weeks ago (holding the Bulldogs to a season-low 28 points).”

Like EL, Lewiston has diversified its offense in recent weeks with the addition of Eddie Chan in the backfield. Chan, who converted to fullback in midseason, provides inside toughness and rushed for 95 yards and a touchdown in last week’s overtime victory over Cony. Jeff Keene added 100 yards and Andy Pulk, the PTC’s fifth-leading rusher (750 yards, nine TD’s) 116 yards on the ground.

“All three of those kids have a different style of running, and there are just times when one style is advantageous and that’s what we go with,” County said.

“We’ve tried to put in some formations where Jeff is used as a receiver in a slot and as a tailback and using Andy as the flanker. They both can play either on of those positions,” County said. “Then we have a couple of young guys, Matt Therrien and Jeff Turcotte, that have also been getting some time at those tailback and wing back spots. We’ve been real happy with the move of Eddie and the way the offense has kind of balanced out since that happened.”

Hartley and County agreed that whether the Blue Devils achieves their goal of securing a home game by the end of the evening or not, they will have earned it.

“Obviously, we’re not going to try to leave any stone unturned,” Hartley said. “Lewiston knows we’re going to do everything we can to be ready.”

“In the nine years that I’ve done this, I can’t remember a halftime where I’ve gone in and been thrilled with the way the game has gone,” County said. “It’s always, always a dogfight.”