Mountain Valley’s Espen Lamberg gets a foot on a loose ball ahead of Monmouth Academy’s Shane Kenniston during a 2-2 tie in Monmouth last month. (Wil Kramlich/Sun Journal)

The prevailing thought is that games only get tougher in the playoffs. For Mountain Valley and Leavitt, that might be even more true.

After facing respective conference rivals for 14 games during the regular season, the Falcons and Hornets now find themselves matched up with foes they aren’t used to seeing.

That’s just the way it is in Class B South for boys’ soccer. Much of the region is made up of teams from the Western Maine Conference, while Mountain Valley and Leavitt only have two other teams each from the Mountain Valley Conference and Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference, respectively.

The WMC doesn’t just boast quantity of teams, but quality as well. Every Class B champion since 1994 has come from the conference, and it’s had a representative in every state final since 1990.

“There’s some discrepancy,” Falcons coach JT Taylor said. “I think a lot of the southern B schools are really tough, and it makes it tough for us. But I think we got some teams in the MVC that can compete with them.”

Mountain Valley is the only MVC team left in the field, after Spruce Mountain (new to the MVC this year after previously being in the KVAC) missed the playoffs and Oak Hill lost to Freeport in the prelims. And with that, he considers his team underdogs.

“There’s nothing wrong with being an underdog,” Taylor said. “I think a lot of people want to root for the underdog.”

Seed-wise, the Falcons aren’t your typical underdog, being the No. 5 seed going against No. 4 Lincoln Academy. But the Eagles come out of a KVAC full of Class B-level teams and have a perennially strong program.

“I think we got some things that are kind of difficult for us, because we haven’t seen them that much,” Taylor said. “But, at the same time, I think, they haven’t seen us either, so I can see it kind of goes both ways sometimes.”

Leavitt is a team that’s familiar with Lincoln Academy, as the two teams squared off twice during the regular season, and the Eagles won both matchups against a Hornets squad that earned the No. 7 seed in B South. Unfortunately for the Hornets, who already beat one WMC squad in Gray-New Gloucester, they don’t get to face a conference rival, but another WMC foe in No. 2 York.

“They’re another tough team,” Leavitt coach Zac Conlogue said. “They’re pretty far away from us, so I haven’t seen them at all this year. I saw them a couple times last year.”

Conlogue said he tries to go and watch games every day of the week to scout potential playoff opponents. But the ever-fluctuating Heal points make it difficult to predict what teams he should prioritize.

Much of his scouting comes from word-of-mouth talking with other coaches.

“I get on the phone, I see who I’ve played during the season, see who they’ve played of common opponents,” Conlogue said. “I try to reach out because there’s a lot of people out there who are willing to help.”

Taylor said he also talked to coaches over the phone about Lincoln, which he saw last year (against Gray-New Gloucester, ironically) but hasn’t seen even on video this season.

“They’re a very skilled team, and from what I’ve heard from a couple coaches, they’re still very skilled,” Taylor said.

The best way teams out of the loop like Mountain Valley and Leavitt can prepare is against the best teams in their own conference. For the Falcons, that means teams like Monmouth Academy, Hall-Dale, Mt. Abram and Lisbon (which they scrimmaged Monday night on the turf at Kents Hill).

“All those teams can compete with any of the teams that we would face in B, so I think that’s kind of made us mentally tough,” Taylor said.

Conlogue and his players pointed to former Class B competitor Maranacook, as well as Lincoln Academy.

“I think playing Maranacook helps a lot,” Conlogue said. “I think they’re pretty similar to those southern Maine teams.”

Both Mountain Valley and Leavitt have similar game plans to deal with, whatever the unfamiliar Class B road throws at them.

“It’s going to come down to defense,” Taylor said.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

Leavitt senior Julian Clement takes possession of the ball and makes a break down the field towards the goal during Saturday’s Class B South preliminary against Gray-New Gloucester. (Lauren Tardif photos)

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