LEWISTON — Someday, if I am blessed with an actual retirement or ever escape this profession, I have promised myself and others that I will write a book about the great things I saw and vicariously experienced.

What’s great about covering sports in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties is that there never will be a shortage of material. The most agonizing part would be deciding what to leave on the cutting room floor.

And what’s the picture on the dust jacket? Hey, I’m pretty much a basketball, baseball and football guy, but it’ll be hockey, of course.

This isn’t Lewiston, Idaho, after all. With apologies to the Maineiacs, the Bates Fabriques and other teams who captivated this community with championship glories of yesteryear, one subject would dominate the prose and monopolize the ink.

Lewiston High School vs. Saint Dominic Academy.

Need I say more? Probably not. If you have invested more than fleeting interest and flickering passion in this rivalry to end all rivalries, you have amassed anecdotes that surely would put any of mine to shame.

That’s why this rivalry is peerless in the state, and perhaps in the country. It isn’t simply two neighbor schools playing a game, their fan bases talking some good-natured trash, a postgame handshake, a final score in the paper the next morning, and temporary bragging rights.

It isn’t coincidence that a twice-and-usually-thrice-annual gathering between two teams named the Saints and Devils in a traditionally blue-collar, Catholic community approaches the seriousness reserved for politics and religion.

Most of us wouldn’t even cite specific games, or even championship seasons. There are too many of them. They’re a blur. It would be like choosing your favorite kid, your favorite Led Zeppelin song or your favorite day at the beach. Impossible tasks, all.

These two programs, linked by geography and their time-honored excellence in this most consuming of games, transcend those mere details. Theirs is a beautifully dysfunctional relationship; a multigenerational, seasonal, contextual disdain.

This is an environment in which brother has played against brother and father has coached against son. It is a circle of life in which a former star from one school often must plug his nose and pull for the other in support of his progeny.

Consider that a building once known as “St. Dominic Arena” now called Androscoggin Bank Colisee serves today as the exclusive home ice for Lewiston, and not the original namesake. Decades ago, you could have safely wagered your life savings against that twisted turn of events.

Rivalries are generally a dead duck in 2016, because we’re too busy making nice in this political climate and too occupied with trying to stay gainfully employed and pay our bills in this economy.

Textile and paper mills close. Parents produce fewer children. Schools consolidate. A mobile society is no longer so thoroughly invested in its community activities. The need for teams to pick on an opponent their own size trumps the power of tradition.

Not here. Not in Lewiston-Auburn. At least not when it comes to the product on the frozen pond with the ceiling and catwalks overhead. Here, 3,000-plus still turned out on a Tuesday night to watch.

The Devils won convincingly, 5-1, as playfully underscored by a Lewiston student section that chanted “God can’t help you” after their team scored two quick goals to break it open early in the third period.

This latest renewal of the greatest event in Maine high school athletics ended with the best tradition in the sporting universe: The hockey handshake line.

St. Dom’s wasn’t finished. After receiving its runner-up medals, the last souvenir any of the Saints coveted from this event, each one skated to the opposite blue line and greeted Lewiston one player and coach at a time. More handshakes. More hugs. More eye contact and mutual congratulations on a job well done and a season well played.

When the ceremony was complete, each team with trophy in hand, Sam Frechette of Lewiston and Reese Farrell of St. Dom’s met at center ice for one final embrace. Both are freshmen. Fifteen-year-old boys who get it, representing institutions and communities that still get it after decades of beating the holy heck out of one another.

They’re freshmen who scored goals, by the way. Frechette lit the lamp twice for Lewiston. Farrell fashioned St. Dom’s sole reply.

Let that be a reminder to anyone who dares wonder how much longer the rivalry will persist. Underclassmen scored all six goals in the biggest game of the season.

Biggest game until Saturday, that is. For the 12th time in 13 years, one of the rivals has survived to see a state final. Lewiston will host Scarborough at 6 p.m. Saturday. The Devils haven’t won it all since 2002.

They will be well prepared. They will owe the Saints a debt of gratitude for that. And all of us owe them both for the endless supply of entertainment over the years.

No community does it better, and no fans — or aging sportswriters — have it better.

Kalle Oakes is a staff writer. His email is koakes@sunjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @oaksie72 and like his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kalleoakes.sj.