The Gardiner football team knows a lot about most teams in Pine Tree Conference Class B — with the exception of Brewer.
“We haven’t seen them,” Gardiner coach Matt Burgess said. “Playing a team you haven’t seen before, it provides challenges. You have to go on film only.”
Additional Photos
No. 4 Gardiner (5-3) will get a good look at No. 5 Brewer (5-3) tonight, when the teams square off in a PTC B quarterfinal game at Hoch Field at 7 p.m.
Elsewhere this weekend, No. 2 Oak Hill (7-1) hosts No. 7 Lisbon (4-4) in a Campbell Conference Class C quarterfinal game Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and No. 5 Maranacook (5-3) visits No. 4 Traip (7-1) on Saturday.
Gardiner comes into the game looking to rebound after a tough 6-0 loss to No. 2 Leavitt in the regular-season finale last weekend. The Tigers are 1-3 at Hoch Field this season.
“We don’t try to talk about it much, but we are not playing well at home,” Burgess said. “We’re concerned about that.”
Burgess is also concerned with Brewer’s new-look offense. The Witches, who made a quarterback switch midway through the season, run primarily out of the pistol formation.
They can run and throw the ball, something Gardiner likes to do as well.
“We’re a pistol team but we do things under center as well,” Brewer coach Don Farnham said. “We’ve done a lot of stuff under center, especially with all this rain. But in the pistol you can do same thing under center. We’re we try to spread things out.”
The pistol is a form of hybrid shotgun-option offense.
In the formation, the quarterback lines up about 4 yards behind center — compared to seven as seen in a traditional shotgun. A running back lines up about 3 yards behind the quarterback, who gets the ball quicker but is still far enough off the line to read defenses.
“It’s a little different,” Burgess said. “Offensively, they do an awful lot of stuff that you have to defend. They have some real good athletes on perimeter.”
Brodie Valley led the Witches with 639 yards and 12 touchdowns on 79 carries. He averages about eight yards a carry. Quarterback Logan Rogerson has thrown for 224 yards and a touchdown since taking over as the starter on Sept. 29. He’s 3-1 as a starter.
“He’s done a real nice job for us,” Farnham said. “We felt we needed some more speed on the outside with him.”
The Tigers will also show a lot of different looks on offense, with senior quarterback Dennis Meehan leading the way. Meehan is a threat to run and throw, making it tough for opposing defenses to game plan.
Steve Sirois has rushed for about 900 yards to lead the Tigers. Tyler Jamison and Josh Moore give Gardiner speed and size on the perimeter as well.
“Gardiner has some pretty good players,” Farnham said. “They have good athletes. It’s going to come down to mistakes, field position and how good their field is.”
Added Burgess: “Of all the playoff games, this one should be one of the better ones.”
Bill Stewart — 621-5640
bstewart@centralmaine.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.