BY TRAVIS LAZARCZYK

Staff Writer

Maranacook Community School football coach Joe Emery can’t recall the last time the Black Bears hosted a playoff game. Maybe it was back in the day, before the program was dropped in the 1980s, he said.

After going 7-1 in the regular season, Maranacook earned the No. 3 seed in the Campbell Conference Class C playoffs, and will host No. 6 Freeport (5-3) on Friday night.

“There’s a lot of expectations,” Emery said. “These seniors expect to win.”

Five of the state’s regions begin playoffs this week. The Pine Tree Conference Class A has one more week in the regular season, and will begin the playoffs next week. The state championship games will be on Nov. 19 at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.

Joining Maranacook in Campbell Conference Class C playoffs, No. 8 Oak Hill (3-5) is at No. 1 Yarmouth (8-0), the defending Class C state champion, and No. 5 Winslow (6-2) plays at No. 4 Lisbon (6-2).

First round matchups in the Pine Tree Conference’s Class B division include No. 6 Waterville (4-4) at No. 3 Gardiner (6-2), and No. 7 Mt. Desert Island (5-3) at No. 2 Mt. Blue (7-1).

In the Little Ten Conference playoffs, No. 5 Foxcroft Academy (5-3) will play at No. 4 Mt. View (6-2), and No. 7 Maine Central Institute (4-4) will play at No. 2 Orono (7-1).

Waterville finished in a tie for fifth place with Hampden Academy (5-3) in the Crabtree Point standings. To separate the Panthers and Broncos, it came down to the fourth tiebreaker, overall record, where Hampden earned the fifth spot by virtue of its five wins.

Not only did the Mt. View High School football team make the playoffs for the first time in its five-year history, the Mustangs won their last four games of the regular season to earn a home game in the first round.

“Going into this last game, we knew we would be either four or five,” Mt. View coach Jack Brady said. “We’re pretty excited.”

MCI tied Stearns for sixth place, but Stearns won the sixth seed because of its 18-14 win over the Huskies in the regular season.

A home playoff game is something new for Maranacook, where Emery expects a rowdy student section to be ready.

“There’s probably 80 or 90 students. They call themselves the Bear Cave,” Emery said. “We wanted a home playoff game. We’re sick of playing No. 1 and going in No. 8.”

The Crabtree Points are what kept Oak Hill in the playoffs. Despite losing their final three regular season games, the Raiders move on thanks to playing the toughest schedule in Western C. Crabtree Points are calculated by adding your winning percentage to the combined wining percentage of all your opponents. Oak Hill’s opponents had a winning percentage of .5938, and that kept the Raiders just ahead of Old Orchard Beach (3-5) and Poland (4-4).

“We squeaked in,” Oak Hill coach Dave Wing said. “I think our strength of schedule helped.”

This is the second year in a row Oak Hill will play at Yarmouth in the postseason. The Clippers beat Oak Hill in Week 2 this season, 51-7.

“I still feel if we play well, we can give them a game,” Wing said. “The key will be to stop their speed and not make mistakes.”

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com