The gold will stay in the closet. The orange will be packed away, too, at least until hunting season.

It will be a sea of green-and-black at Griffin Field Friday night when Spruce Mountain plays its first official home game, hosting Falmouth.

The people of Livermore Falls and Jay will sit on the same sideline. They will celebrate a touchdown together. They will goad the defense on 4th-and-1 together.

It’s not quite as miraculous as cats and dogs reaching a truce. But it will feel a bit odd at first.

It is not unprecedented, though. A lot of Phoenix fans got their first taste of post-consolidation life last Friday night in a thrilling 22-20 win over Greely in Spruce Mountain’s Class B debut. If this week’s anticipated home throng is as enthusiastic as the vocal contingent that made the trip over an hour south to Cumberland for the first road game, Falmouth’s offense will have a hard time hearing QB Matt Kingry when they line up in a key situation.

Whenever the prospect of a Jay and Livermore Falls merger was first tossed around (and it was at least a conceivable hypothesis when I started covering sports in 1999), one of the most intriguing things about it was the prospect of the fan bases from two towns with a long-standing passion for football getting behind one team.

Judging by the size of the crowds at both Jay’s Taglienti Field and Livermore Falls’ Griffin Field, that passion had waned in recent years. Sure, if it was the annual season finale between the Tigers and Andies, the standing-room crowd would usually be a couple of rows deep, especially if a playoff spot was at stake. A game with Winthrop or Dirigo might draw a good visiting crowd. But your average Campbell Conference Friday night game was not the must see event it was a decade or two earlier.

The rivalry always brought them out, and it peaked in 2004, when the two schools met at Taglienti for the Campbell Conference championship. The electricity on the sidelines was unlike any game I’ve ever attended, and it only heightened as one of the greatest championship games ever unfolded and ultimately was decided on a dramatic game-winning drive and two-point conversion by the Tigers, led by QB Justin Wells and WR Andrew Deering.

It is tempting to want to hold on to the rivalry for moments like that. But it was unlikely to ever happen again, at least in the current high school football format.

Both schools have lost an alarming number of students and football players, and rosters were barely exceeding two dozen in recent years. Even the most talented teams couldn’t overcome the wear-and-tear of the season. Once playoff regulars, the Tigers and Andies seemed to be taking turns at the postseason.

The success of the Phoenix on the field and their popularity on Friday nights remains to be seen.

History and curiosity will draw folks from up and down Routes 4 and 133 this Friday night.They will be there to get a look-see at everything from Week 1 star Bill Calden to the new uniforms (pretty sharp, and thankfully not from the designers of the University of Maryland travesty). The crowd could be even bigger next week when Mountain Valley comes to town.

Griffin Field will add to the atmosphere. With all due respect to Taglienti, Griffin had to be the home of the Phoenix. It is better in every way, except maybe parking. Better bleachers, better press box, better concession stand (better fries), better drainage, better lights, better sound system. The field even looks better in late October when it’s been torn up by the elements and hundreds of pairs of cleats.

It might seem a bit strange to the Jay fans driving south on Route 4 that they are going to a home game. Fans from Livermore Falls might do a double take seeing Mark Bonnevie on the home sideline.

But the two communities are so entwined, it shouldn’t be long before they embrace their field, their coach and, above all, their team, as their own.

In fact, may I be so bold as to suggest that moment could come even before the opening kickoff this Friday.

Carrying on one of the great traditions of Livermore Falls High School football, leading the Phoenix to the field a few minutes before game-time will be the combined marching bands and cheerleaders from Jay and Livermore Falls (or North and South campus, as they are now known).

The band will be wearing the old Livermore Falls band jackets (so yes, there will still be a hint of gold at Griffin Field). New Spruce Mountain High School patches will cover the “LFHS” and “ANDIES” on the jackets, and the band members will wear black pants and shoes instead of white and black berets instead of green.

Considering the size of the band and the cheerleading and football squads, it may take a while for the parade to make its way down the hill from the high school to the field.

That should give even the most ardent Tigers and Andies holdouts to let go of the past and try on something green-and-black.