LIVERMORE FALLS —Bill Calden enjoys having people stop him in the street or a store in Jay and Livermore Falls and congratulate him on a good game.

He is learning to enjoy getting even more attention from opposing defenders, too, which isn’t easy considering they usually offer more than a thumbs up when they meet him.

Not that Calden ever sought a low profile. He certainly didn’t wait long to announce his presence as the first and most dangerous offensive weapon on the Spruce Mountain Phoenix. Rushing for 333 yards and three touchdowns against Greely in the first game of the consolidated school’s history immediately made the senior tailback the subject of significant scrutiny from Campbell Conference defensive coordinators.

“I think he thrives on it,” Spruce Mountain coach Mark Bonnevie said. “It’s the attitude he has. He wants to be the guy that gets the carries. It’s a challenge to him to be successful knowing that every team we face is trying to stop him.”

One of the reasons Calden loves football more than just about anything in the world is the challenges it presents. As one of the smallest players on the field since he first buckled a chin strap in third grade, he’s met the challenges with remarkable speed, toughness and drive.

“No way does that (lack of size) put any fear in me,” said Calden, who is 5-foot-8 and a solid 175 pounds. “It just gives me more drive to want to outwork the other guys who seem like bigger workhorses.”

“One thing that Bill is not lacking is competitive drive,” Bonnevie said. “It’s been that way since he was a young kid. He works extremely hard. He probably works harder than any kid I’ve coached in a while, in the weight room, in the offseason. He lives for football and he prepares for it 365 days a year.”

Nothing could have prepared Calden for the first season of Spruce Mountain football, though. Last year at Jay, he and Jordan Couture formed such a talented backfield duo that Bonnevie altered his normally pass-happy spread offense and tailored it more to the running game.

When Couture graduated and Jay merged with Livermore Falls, Calden figured to be the focal point of the Phoenix offense and knew the rest of the conference would eventually do its due diligence. But word and game film of his performance against Greely spread quickly.

By Week 2 against Falmouth, defenses were loading up to stop him. Running lanes were harder to find, and even when they did open up, they closed quicker because all eyes were trained on No. 38 and all legs and arms were trained to tackle him.

By the third game, all of the defensive attention started becoming hazardous to his health. Against Mountain Valley, Spruce Mountain’s Campbell Conference quarterfinal this week, Calden sprained his left shoulder. The injury forced him to sit out the following week against Wells.

Suddenly the Phoenix coaching staff, which since preseason had been searching for ways to take the pressure off of Calden, had no choice but to use different options.

“It didn’t give us the luxury to build into those options. We were working into those other options and all of a sudden, they had to happen now,” Bonnevie said.

Calden hated watching the Wells loss from the sidelines and having to take on a reduced role the following week in a win against Gray-New Gloucester. But he also realized that for the long-term good of the team, and his health, it may have been necessary to make the offense more diverse.

“Our passing has gone tremendously well, and we’re finding new guys to run the ball that have been doing a superior job,” he said. “It was really a good thing to see.”

Make no mistake. Calden, who is now approaching the 1,000-yard rushing mark and has 10 touchdowns on the season, will still be watched very closely by the vaunted Mountain Valley defense on Friday night.

“He’s quick,” Mountain Valley coach Jim Aylward said. “No question he has great speed. You give him a seam and he can make you pay for it.”

Calden, who has talked with Plymouth State about extending his playing career, knows the seventh-seeded Phoenix have their work cut out for them against the defending state champions. And he knows the battle will be as much mental as physical.

“I honestly think the way to stop these guys is to keep our heads up. They’re a great team. They’re going to make great plays. But we need to fight back. We can’t keep our heads down,” he said.

“I’ve never had a challenge like this,” he said. “The biggest thing I see from it is, yeah, I have pressure on me, but what am I going to do under pressure?”