For the veteran coaches, who will match wits and prodigiously talented teams at Leavitt’s Libby Field in Friday night’s Eastern Class B championship, the past 11 Sunday mornings have made them feel like an eight-year-old with 11 Christmas mornings.

“It’s fun to sit down on Sunday when you’re coming up with your game plan,” Hathaway said. “You know that you’ve got all of these guys at your disposal and you try to find some good ways to use them.”

It’s easy to envision Hathaway and Parlin gathered around a table with their assistant coaches, rubbing their hands together and scribbling plays on a whiteboard or piece of paper. They might even let out a quick chuckle as they contemplate the possibilities of their offense, the same way the eight-year-old giggles as he considers what he can do with a new video game system.

“If Plan A won’t work, when you go to Plan B, it’s another Plan A,” Parlin said.

No. 1 Leavitt (10-0) and No. 2 Mt. Blue (9-1) are both loaded with “Plan A’s,” which is why every defense in the Pine Tree Conference didn’t have any choice but to take a pummeling this season.

Leavitt averages 46.8 points per game, Mt. Blue 45.6. Both use a spread offense, but with distinctive differences.

Win as a team

The Hornets rely on more formations and use the option with senior quarterback Jordan Hersom to force the defense to pick their poison. The Cougars put defenses in a desperate dilemma, too, but with junior quarterback Jordan Whitney spending more time in the pocket to pick apart the opposition with an array of throws ranging from point-blank shovel passes to long bombs down the field.

Whitney’s arsenal is undeniably deeper, with running backs Izaiha Tracy, Eric Berry, Chad Luker and Bradley Jackson, running back/slot Chris Malone, rangy wide receivers Cam Sennick (6-foot-6) and Nick Hilton (6-foot-4) and tight end Zak Kendall. In fact, Parlin said it is the deepest and most versatile set of skill position players he has had in 19 seasons as the Cougars’ head coach.

“We’ve never had this many (weapons),” Parlin said. “Now, we’ve had some that are better at a certain position, but it’s the most balance that we’ve ever had. They all bring a lot to the table, but they all bring something a little bit different.”

“We’re each dangerous in our own way,” Tracy said. “Hilton, he has that jumping and catching ability. We have Cam, who has that speed and height, who can outrun or outjump anyone. Me and Chris, we’re the shorter guys, but we’re feisty and we can get moving when we want to.”

The Cougars have racked up over 4,300 yards of offense this season, yet no one has rushed for more than Berry’s 525 yards and no receiver has gained more than Hilton’s 517 yards.

It doesn’t matter where Whitney looks. He sees the potential for a big play.

“It’s great. I can go to whoever I want and I know they’ll get it done,” said Whitney, who has thrown for 1,839 yards and 24 TDs with a 72 percent completion rate. “Whoever gets the ball is going to get me yards and get into the end zone.”

That balance is fine by the players. While many of them are capable of putting up the kind of eye-popping stats that attract headlines and Fitzpatrick Trophy votes, they don’t worry about individual accomplishments.

“None of us really care who gets credit,” Sennick said. “You win as a team, you lose as a team. It doesn’t matter who scores or who gets the credit because we all take part in it.”

“We take a lot of pressure off each other,” Berry said. “It makes it a lot of fun because we know the defense is going to have a problem. They don’t know which guy is going to get the ball or who to stop then or how to stop that guy.”

The Hornets like to spread the wealth, too, but there is clearly more of a pecking order. Senior running back Jake Ouellette has rushed for 1,222 yards, Hersom for 881 yards. Given that they were the offensive leaders last year when Leavitt won the second of back-to-back PTC titles, they would have to be conspicuous.

Versatile senior Ian Durgin has collected over 1,200 combined yards rushing and receiving, He and receiver Brian Bedard are Hersom’s two favorite targets in the passing game.

“Basically, Jordan and Jake are the two keys, and then you get Durgin in the mix and me and Sam (Green) are the next two,” Bedard said.

The Hornets aren’t concerned about how often they get the ball, he added. “You just make plays when you get the ball.”

Thanks to Hersom’s improvement as a passer, Hathaway can find more ways to get them the ball this year. Factor in what the coach said is the best combination of experience, athleticism and football intelligence of any team he’s had in his 10 years at Leavitt and that has allowed him to expand and diversify the playbook.

“When we had Eric (Theiss, the QB on the 2009 state title team), we’d mix it up quite a bit, too, but a lot of that stuff was designed to go to one or two guys,” Hathaway said. “This year, the play is not designed to go to a certain guy or get a certain receiver open. They’re just more concepts where Jordan makes the read and delivers the football.”

“My job is to just to get out there and get the ball to guys who can run in space and make something happen,”  said Hersom,who has completed 72 percent of his passes for 1,470 yards and 15 touchdowns. “It’s been real easy for me to do that this year. I trust everybody on the team, all of my teammates. It’s just a matter of me getting the ball out and doing my job so their job can be easy as well.”

Simpler is better

While Hathaway has added wrinkles to his playbook this year, Parlin has taken them out.

“To tell you the truth, we’ve simplified it,” Parlin said. “John Wooden always talked about the better you are, the simpler you are. If I want to put something in, I’ve got to take something out. It’d be hard to take a play out of your offense that has scored you three or four touchdowns.”

A smaller playbook doesn’t make the Cougars any simpler to defend, although Leavitt had more success than any other team when it beat Mt. Blue, 22-17 on Oct. 7.

“They’ve got a lot of skill guys just like we do,” Ouellette said. “They run a similar offense. They’ve got a lot of speed. They’ve got a good line. It is pretty much like looking in a mirror.”

Parlin looks in that mirror and doesn’t see any blemishes.

“Their skill guys, there’s not a weakness out there,” he said. “And they’re experienced. They’re guys that have played in big playoff games and state games. You can’t coach that experience.”

“It’s fun to play against a team like that,” he added.