East eyes Bowl repeat

Past performance suggests the West will be favored to win the 15th annual Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic scheduled fort 7:30 p.m. Friday at Waterhouse Field in Biddeford.

After all, the West has won 12 of the first 14 games in the series.

But the East did a lot to erase any sense of inferiority a year, blasting the West 55-8 in the most lopsided game in Lobster Bowl history.

While many players and coaches downplayed the significance of winning and losing this annual charity game early and the week, this is a gathering of 87 of the best members of Maine’s high school football Class of 2004.

And they didn’t get that way be not being competitive.

“When you really look at it, winning may not be the most important thing,” said West head coach Greg Stilphen of reigning Class A state champion Deering of Portland. “But winning and losing is important to these guys. These are all guys who want to compete.”

While defenses typically are ahead of the offenses in a game in which the teams just have a week to prepare, both the East and West have a variety of offensive weapons to challenge that notion.

East quarterbacks Josh Withee of Foxcroft Academy and Nick Arthers of Belfast both have state championship pedigrees, with Belfast the reigning Class B titleist and Foxcroft the 2003 Class C champion.

They are countered by a pair of Class A quarterbacks who will direct the West offense in Fitzpatrick Trophy winner Phil Bourassa of Biddeford and Andrew Schober of Cheverus of Portland.

The East has an explosive running back tandem in fullback Phil Warren, an 1,800-yard rusher last fall while leading Brunswick to the Eastern A crown, and tailback Mike Prentiss, a 2,000-yard rusher as a senior at Bangor High School.

The West running back contingent is led by tailbacks Joey Marsh of Deering and Decota Cotton of Noble of Berwick, and fullback Mike Grimaldi of Portland.

Marsh is one of four Deering players on the West team, the largest contingent from any school in the game. Bangor, Belfast, Brunswick, Gardiner, Winslow, Portland, Biddeford and Cheverus each has three Lobster Bowl players.

Joining Prentiss from Bangor on the East squad are tight end P.J. Dowe and nose guard Trevor Lagrange.

“I’m excited,” said Dowe, a tight end who will study hotel management at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas this fall. “It’s one more chance to play football with these guys. It’s been fun to play next to them.”

One major challenge for both Stilphen and East head coach Dick Leavitt of Brunswick and their staffs early in the week was to put players in positions where they can best help their teams – not necessarily an easy task.

As an example, an early glimpse at the East roster revealed 11 inside linebackers, so ultimately some of those linebackers had to be moved to defensive end or the secondary.

“The kids know they have to give up a little individually for the good of the team,” Leavitt said.