Two young and talented football teams stand between Eastern Maine champions Belfast and Foxcroft Academy and the Gold Balls symbolic of statewide supremacy – hardware that will be distributed Saturday when the state finals are played at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.

In Class B, Gorham (8-2) won the right to face Belfast by winning its first Western Maine championship in just its fifth year of fielding a varsity football team. Despite the relative infancy of the program and the fact the Gorham roster includes just five seniors, Rams’ coach David Kilborn anticipated fielding a solid team this fall.

“I didn’t know how good we would be,” said Kilborn, the only head coach the program has had. “But I thought we’d be competitive, and that we’d be a playoff team.

“Our team now is a lot different from the beginning of the season. The kids have all banded together, they’ve faced adversity and didn’t get down, and now they have high expectations.”

Gorham earned the second seed in Western B during the regular season, then defeated Mountain Valley of Rumford 15-6 and previously unbeaten Wells 22-14 to earn its berth in 6 p.m. state final.

The Rams run a double-wing offense similar to that mastered by Class C power Boothbay in recent years. Sophomore tailback Andy Oldenburg has led Gorham’s power running attack with 1,200 yards this season, while junior tailback Tyson Nason (750 yards) is considered the fastest player on the team.

The Gorham offense has been boosted in recent weeks by 230-pound freshman fullback Andrew Hutton, who stepped into the starting lineup at midseason and has led the Rams in rushing in each of its playoff victories.

Both Hutton and Oldenburg topped 100 rushing yards in the WM final.

Junior quarterback Rob Tole runs the Gorham offense.

“We don’t look to pass a lot, maybe three to six times a game,” said Kilborn. “But we’ve got a pretty big line, averaging 260 to 265, so we try to take advantage of that.”

The Gorham defense, anchored by junior middle linebacker John Lemieux and defensive end John MacKenzie, plays a variety of defensive fronts depending on the opposing offense.

“We definitely try to attack,” said Kilborn. “We try to dictate what the offense is able to do, and when we address our keys and tackle well we do fine.

“The defense has been a big turnaround point for us this year. Our ability to stop teams has been a key to our success.”

In Class C, Lisbon (11-0) is seeking its first state title since 1997, when the Greyhounds used a late-game drive to edge the same school it will face Saturday – Foxcroft Academy.

This year’s team has more sophomores (19) than juniors (2) and seniors (8) combined, leaving 17th-year head coach Dick Mynahan a bit surprised at his team’s success.

“I’m having kind of a difficult time believing we’re going to the state game,” he said. “Winning the Western Maine regional was something we never really focused on, never really discussed. When the season began we were looking more at trying to figure out a way to get into the playoffs, and that it would be a successful year if we could get that No. 4 slot.

“We were kind of an inexperienced team, but early in the season we played some teams with injury problems and a couple of teams that had eligibility issues, and we were able to get some wins and gain some experience.”

Lisbon reached the state final by ousting two-time defending state champion Boothbay 28-14 in the Western C final after topping Livermore Falls 26-0 in the semifinals.

Offensively, Lisbon focuses on the run, with senior tailback John Tefft and senior fullback Tony Walker both approaching 1,000 yards on the season behind a line completely rebuilt after five starters graduated last June. Walker ran for 184 yards in the Western Maine final, while Tefft is Lisbon’s leading receiver coming out of the backfield.

Directing the attack is junior Chris Kates, a first-year starter at quarterback.

“He does a lot of things well,” Mynahan said. “He runs the team pretty efficiently, getting the kids in and out of the huddle, and he runs the ball well.”

Defensively, the Greyhounds have allowed less than eight points per game in their 11 wins, with Mynahan using as many as six sophomores in the lineup at times.

“We’re a defense that relies on everyone doing their job,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of standouts, but we’ve got pretty good team speed and 11 kids pursuing to the ball.”