Class A Quarterfinals No. 5 Sanford at No. 4 Scarborough

Class B Quarterfinals No. 5 Westbrook at No. 4 Biddeford

Starting back in August, high school football teams from across the state started preparing for the 2015 season – all with the hopes of making a run at the Gold Ball.

Now, after eight weeks of the regular season, six local football teams are ready to begin their quest for a state title as the Maine Principals’ Association playoffs begin tonight.

Five of those six local teams will be in action tonight with defending Class A state champion Thornton Academy getting an extra week to prepare after receiving a bye as the top seed in Class A South.

Biddeford, Kennebunk, Old Orchard Beach, Sanford and Wells all have quarterfinal round playoff games tonight with the hopes of joining TA in next week’s semifinals.

Below is a preview of each of the five playoff games involving local teams:

Sanford heads into the Class A playoffs with a 4-4 record and with a chance to avenge a loss against Scarborough.

Back in late September, the No. 5 Spartans made the trip to Scarborough and dropped a 37-15 decision – in a game that was closer than the score indicates.

Sanford coach Mike Fallon hopes his team learned from that regular-season loss.

“We did not match Scarborough’s energy for an entire 48 minutes in our regular season meeting,” said Fallon. “In football it’s hard to just flip the switch … we need to show up ready to play. Scarborough is a good team that plays aggressively on defense and is very balanced on offense … they spread the field and make you work. We are stressing that every play matters in an elimination game.”

One thing that killed the Spartans in that regular-season matchup was their inability to finish off drives.

“Not finishing in the red zone was a huge factor in our last meeting,” said Fallon. “It is a significant point of emphasis in practice every day. We have to take advantage of all our opportunities to put points on the board.”

The Spartans have plenty of weapons on offense, but will be once again looking for a big game from senior standout Pete Hegarty.

“Peter is always a big part of our game plan – he is a play maker,” said Fallon. “I think it is imperative that we get all of our skill kids involved offensively in the hopes of keeping the defense off balance.”

Another key player for the Spartans tonight will be quarterback Frankie Veino, who threw for 200 yards and two scores in the first game against Scarborough.

“Frankie has continued to evolve into a top-notch quarterback in our conference,” said Fallon, who said Veino is a dual-threat QB. “We really like how he is a two prong quarterback – he has a strong, accurate arm and he can run the ball with authority. He uses his 6-foot-1, 200-pound frame to his advantage in the run game. This allows us to stress defenses by forcing them to defend all 11.”

The winner of the Sanford-Scarborough game will get a shot at No. 1 Thornton

Academy.

It will be a rematch at Waterhouse Field tonight when the No. 5 Blue Blazes visit No. 4 Biddeford. In their regular-season meeting, the Tigers picked up a 28-13 victory over Westbrook.

“I thought we left a lot of points on the board that night,” said Biddeford coach Brian Curit.

In order to light up the scoreboard tonight, the Tigers will need a big game from standout quarterback Joey Curit and running back Lucas Rhoy.

For Rhoy, it will be his first action in two weeks after an injury sidelined the standout.

“Lucas looks great. He’s ready to go, he’s 100 percent and he would have played last week if there was no tomorrow,” said coach Curit.

The Biddeford coach knows how big Rhoy’s impact will be for his team.

“It’s huge. He’s our best football player,” said Curit.

Coach Curit compared Rhoy’s role with the Tigers to Leavitt standout Levi Craig, who throw for 196 yards and ran for 160 more in the Hornets’ win last week.

“We got beat by a better team last week, no ifs, no ands, no buts. I thought Leavitt, the way they played that night, was as good as anybody, but if you take No. 14 (Craig) off that team, you know what, they’re not quite the same team. Lucas is our No. 14. I mean he’s one of the best players in the league, we all know that,” said coach Curit.

Westbrook can’t be happy to see Rhoy back in the lineup as the Tigers’ standout ran for over 200 yards against the Blue Blazes defense in the first meeting.

The Biddeford coach thought Westbrook made the choice to take away Tigers QB Joey Curit and make Rhoy beat them – and the standout running back did just that.

“I think they were a little overzealous with Joey and let Lucas run wild,” said coach Curt. “Joey was more than happy to just keep giving the ball to Lucas. Maybe things will change (tonight). That’s the nature of option football.”

The winner of tonight’s Biddeford- Westbrook game will play the winner of No. 8 Morse and No. 1 Falmouth.

Class B Quarterfinals No. 6 Kennebunk at No. 3 Marshw ood

It’s been said a lot in a lot of different sports, “the defending state champions are the champs until someone knocks them off.”

That saying holds true for No. 3 Marshwood as they enter the postseason looking to make it back-to-back Class B titles. Tonight, No. 6 Kennebunk will have a chance to knock them off when the Rams make the trip to South Berwick.

The Rams will also have a chance to avenge a disappointing loss to the Hawks earlier this month.

“I think for the most part you have to put it behind you. That’s what we tried to focus on at the time, let’s put it behind us and get ready to play the next game,” said Kennebunk coach Joe Rafferty.

Rafferty admitted his team wasn’t ready to face the Hawks the last time around.

“They came in and certainly punched us right in the mouth that night, put the pedal to the metal and never let up,” said Rafferty. “We didn’t match their intensity and didn’t seem ready to play … I don’t think that is the true us, so our focus is really just get ready.”

One thing Rafferty has been stressing to his team is that the postseason is truly a second chance – and can be unpredictable.

“We ended the season at 6-2, they are 6-2, and you just have to play. Anything can happen on a gameday,” said Rafferty.

The head coach has also been using another Kennebunk team as an example.

“I’m looking at our own women’s soccer team and we are kind of using them as our inspiration, you know. You just have to be ready on game day,” said Rafferty, who was referencing the Kennebunk soccer team’s recent win over two-time defending champion Windham in the playoffs.

One thing Rafferty knows is that his team will need to get off to a strong start if they are going to beat the defending champs.

“It’s big. We need to make sure that we are ready to play right from the kickoff and on,” said Rafferty, who said he knows the Hawks will be ready to play from the start. “They are not one of those teams where it’s going to be a slow-paced first quarter. They are going to come at you right away. That’s the way they play. Their intensity is high, their pace is quick and we just have to be ready and can’t all of the sudden find ourselves down 14 or 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.”

The winner of the Kennebunk- Marshwood game will face the winner of No. 2 Leavitt and No. 7 Greely.

Class C Quarterfinals No. 6 Poland at No. 3 Wells

The Wells Warriors enter the playoffs with a 6-2 record and seem to be playing their best football at the right time.

The Warriors closed out the season with three straight wins – outscoring those three opponents by a combined 115-6 score.

“We feel real good about where we are. When you are young team you want to keep getting better each week and, for the most part, we have done that,” said Wells coach Tim Roche.

Roche believes a surprising loss to Fryeburg in September helped his team mature quickly.

“I think losing to Fryeburg was a great lesson for us in preparation and what you need to do each week to prepare to win,” said Roche.

The two losses for Wells came by a combined three points and Roche believes his team’s true colors came to light after those setbacks.

“I would have rather won those, but you do find out a lot about the character and make up of the team after those loses. Each time we lost, we came out and played a great game the next week,” said Roche.

The Warriors will once again look to run the ball tonight, but Roche also said his team has the ability to mix things up.

“We have always been a run-first team. We do however have some great athletes … Owen Berry at QB we have great confidence in,” said Roche, who has confidence in his running game. “But our running backs and line have come a long way. I am proud to watch them develop into a really sound unit.”

The Warriors have been putting up plenty of points this season, but their defense has been just as important – especially during the last few weeks.

“One of the things that we hear a lot is how physical we are. We play defense downhill attacking all the time. Sometimes we give up a pass play or two, but in the last few weeks I am amazed how physical we are,” said Roche. “Standing on the sideline you sometimes see us take the heart right out of our opponents. I expect the same this week … we have to be physical and play mistake-free football.”

The winner of the Poland-Wells game will face off with the winner of No. 2 Cape Elizabeth and No. 7 Gray-New Gloucester.

Class D Quarterfinals No. 7 Ol d Orch ard Beach at No. 2 Dirigo

After four weeks of the season, Old Orchard Beach’s record stood at 2-2 with the Seagulls dropping their first two games and then winning two straight to get back to .500.

Unfortunately for the Seagulls, they would then drop their final three games of the regular season to finish at 2-5 and fall into the seventh seed of the playoffs.

One thing that hurt the Seagulls in that three-game losing skid – which included a 36-14 loss to Dirigo – was the fact that three of their starting five linemen were injured.

But now, after a bye week last week, OOB head coach Dean Plante says his team is healthy and prepared for the playoffs.

“We regamed plan, we regrouped and we are getting healthy finally, which we haven’t been for the last four weeks … it should be a good game,” said Plante of tonight’s trip to Dirigo.

Part of the Seagulls’ new game plan has been putting in an entirely new offense since the start of the season.

“We changed what we are doing offensively almost completely,” said Plante.

One of the changes the Seagulls made late in the season was moving starting quarterback Dylan Creswell back to his more natural position of running back and sliding sophomore Dylan Boudreau into the starting QB spot.

“We are slowly evolving as a team. We have some good seniors, but we don’t have a lot of them. We are pretty young, so we figured we would be kind of a work in progress and our goal was to find our identity on both sides of the ball as the year went on and I think we are close,” said Plante.

A big part of the Seagulls’ game plan all season has been senior Erik Hogan, who is a threat to break a long play anytime he touches the ball, and that hasn’t changed.

“I think getting Erik going early is going to open up some other things. He has to get his touches and they have to be productive, and if they are, then our offense becomes pretty explosive … Erik is the catalyst for sure,” said Plante.

Plante said getting his starting linemen back on the field is the biggest positive for his team this week.

“We got everyone cleared, so we are back to our original starting offensive and defensive lines, which is huge,” said Plante.