Bangor vs. EL; Brewer on the road

The dawn of the 2003 high football season begins around dusk Friday, with a sense of newness surrounding several of the Week 1 encounters.

In Bangor, there are new players in key positions as the Rams open against Edward Little of Auburn, the reigning Eastern Maine Class A champ.

In Brewer, there’s a new head coach in Ed Ortego, and a new option offense to replace the wing-T the Witches have employed in recent years.

And in Hampden, there’s new turf – FieldTurf, to be exact – as the Broncos break in a new home field against Western B newcomer Falmouth.

Edward Little at Bangor, 7 p.m.: The Rams are looking to avoid a repeat of last season’s 0-2 start, but face an immediate test in the Red Eddies, who graduated a large senior class but return veterans at the skill positions.

“We’re quite a different team from last year,” said EL coach Jim Hersom. “Offensively we’re doing some different things. We’ll probably throw the ball close to 20 times a game.”

That plan plays to the strength of senior quarterback Matt Bennett, running backs Chris Leclair and Chris Lemieux and wideouts Brent Miller and Nick Taylor.

“For us to be competitive we have to score three touchdowns,” Hersom said. “We graduated nine starters off our defense from last year, so we’ll struggle early with our defense.”

While EL returns just four starters, Bangor also sports a new look, particularly at quarterback, where Shaun Sullivan steps in as the opening-night starter, and tailback, where Mike Prentiss moves from split end to team with wingback Tyler Heber and fullback Ben Payson in the Rams’ backfield.

Bangor hopes to capitalize on its line play to establish its running game, which would serve the additional purpose of keeping the ball away from the pass-oriented Red Eddies.

“If we come out fired up and execute on offense, we’ll be fine,” Bangor coach Mark Hackett said. “But if we struggle, we struggle, and [EL] can do some things to make you struggle.”

Brewer at Lake Region, 7 p.m. at Naples: The Witches begin a road schedule that should qualify them for frequent driver miles, given the 31/2-hour trip to Lake Region tonight, an exhibition game at Gorham next weekend, and future dates against Oak Hill at Wales and Leavitt at Turner Center.

Ortego, an assistant coach at Brewer since 1995, is retaining the same defense the Witches have used to advance to the Eastern B playoffs each of the last two years.

But a switch to the veer option attack is designed to take advantage of increased team speed. The Witches use two quarterbacks, Court Rancourt and Danny Fox, to run the attack.

“We’re very happy with where we are right now,” Ortego said.

Brewer and Lake Region share one similarity – a relative lack of experience. Brewer returns two starters from 2002, Lake Region four.

“We’re comparable teams in that regard,” said Ortego. “The key is how the replacement players step up in their first game.”

Lake Region does feature a returning quarterback in Josh Woodbury and a top-flight receiver in James Oberg.

“They have a good quarterback, and a good wide receiver,” Ortego said. “But defensively we’re playing pretty well.”

Falmouth at Hampden Academy, 7 p.m.: Optimism is high in Hampden, not only because the Broncos have a new state-of-the-art field to call home, but a fairly veteran corps of juniors and seniors with a playoff berth on their minds.

Preseason also provided a sense of stability for the Broncos, who are playing for the same head coach – John Sparacio – for back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2000.

“The kids are pretty much confident with what they need to know,” said Sparacio. “It’s just a matter of trying to get things down.”

Hampden will rely on a blend of size along the front lines and speed in the backfield against a Falmouth team that has moved up to the Western B ranks after starting from scratch four years ago in the Maine Principals’ Association Developmental League.

The Yachtsmen are in a rebuilding mode, however, after graduating 20 seniors from last year’s team.

“Falmouth’s been in the Developmental League for three years, and they have five or six returning starters,” Sparacio said. “We saw them scrimmage. “They’re pretty quick, but they’re not as big as we are.”