KITTERY — The playoff chase is heating up for football teams around the state, but on Wednesday the postseason picture in Western D Campbell Conference was completely rearranged.

Traip Academy athletic director Mike Roberge informed the Maine Principals’ Association that a reserve player who had seen game action was ineligible, resulting in the forfeiture of the Rangers’ three wins.

“Doing a review of mid-quarter reports of all our fall athletes, I stumbled upon, unfortunately, a student that got through. I guess the best way to describe it is we had a player on our football team that was a reserve that is a fifth-year student,” Roberge said. “As soon as we found that information out, we self-reported or communicated that to the MPA.

“…When you make a mistake you need to own up to it. I take full responsibility for this issue.”

MPA Assistant Executive Director Mike Burnham confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Roberge had informed the MPA as such, resulting in Traip’s record going from 3-2 to 0-5.

“They discovered and reported a use of an ineligible player,” Burnham said. “…The administration and particularly the athletic administrator, Mike Roberge, should be commended for how they dealt with this, that they discovered it and they reported it.”

Traip’s three victories this season came against Boothbay (2-3), Maranacook (2-3) and Telstar (1-5), but the effects of the forfeiture of games will be felt well beyond just those wins as it will also have a direct effect on Crabtree points.

Old Orchard Beach and Lisbon — the two teams to beat the Rangers prior to Wednesday’s decision — will see their Crabtree Indexes take a hit, as those victories will now be reflected against an 0-5 team as opposed to a 3-2 squad. That ripple will continue to affect the rest of the division as their points are calculated to reflect the new team records for Boothbay, Maranacook and Telstar as well.

The presiding reaction from a number of coaches around the league was one of empathy for Traip and particularly the players on the team.

“It’s not how we want to win,” Maranacook coach Joe Emery said. “I feel bad for the rest of the Traip players that have been busting their butts.”

“You feel bad for the program and bad for the kids that it happened,” echoed Winthrop/Monmouth coach Dave St. Hilaire.

Josh Murphy, a senior on the Maranacook football team, said he “couldn’t even imagine” what the Rangers players are going through.

“It’s not like we earned the win,” Murphy said. “I feel bad for them actually because they’ve been busting their butts obviously, and then find out someone is a fifth-year senior to lose all their games is probably a big disappointment for them.

“…I would be livid. Oh my goodness.”

For now, Traip is doing the only thing it can — moving on.

Rangers coach Ron Ross said his players are taking the news as well as they could.

“It’s hard to give a bunch of kids that news,” Ross said. “This is just something that’s never happened to us before. It happened and we just want to put it past us.

“…Life is about adversity and you’re life is gonna get turned upside down depending on how you deal with it. We’re not sitting on it, we’re not dwelling on it, we’re just going to come out Saturday and play the way we play.”

The Rangers are down, but not out of the playoff chase. The road to get there, however, just became extremely difficult.

Traip is one game back of Winthrop/Monmouth and Telstar in the standings for the eighth and final playoff spot, but will face two of the conference’s top teams in its final two games.

Before closing the season with unbeaten Dirigo (5-0) on Oct. 25, the Rangers will travel to Oak Hill (5-1) Saturday for a 1:30 p.m. start against the Raiders.

When asked for his thoughts on the Traip situation and shifting standings in the conference, Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said his team was preparing for the Rangers like it was any other week.

“I learned from someone a long time ago don’t believe the standings until its over. Don’t try and guess,” Doucette said. “We’re going to worry about this week first.

“We watched them on film, we’ve scouted them and we know they’re a good team.”

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley