It is a pair of shoulder pads that will live in infamy at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft.

A year ago, wide receiver Brandon Hall suffered an anterior cruciate ligament during the Ponies’ regular-season football opener against Maine Central Institute, costing him the rest of the football season and much of the basketball season.

Last Saturday, wide receiver Matt Carey suffered a broken left tibia and a dislocated ankle during a preseason scrimmage at Brewer – apparently while wearing the same shoulder pads Hall was wearing.

“We ought to burn them,” said Foxcroft coach Paul Withee. “I had no idea whose pads they were. I think Matt figured out that they were Brandon’s pads from a year ago after talking with him.”

Carey, a senior wide receiver and defensive back who was playing football for the first time since his freshman year, had gone up to catch a pass. As he came down and planted his left foot in the rain-soaked terrain, he was hit by a pair of defenders coming from opposite directions and the injury occurred.

“The leg and foot are supposed to be 12 [o’clock] to 6,” said Withee. “This was 12 to 9.”

Two pins have been inserted to stabilize the ankle and allow the surrounding tendons to heal and strengthen, Withee said.

Carey will have his leg placed in a cast later this week once the swelling subsides. He is expected to wear the cast for six to eight weeks, according to his father, Foxcroft basketball coach David Carey. That will be followed by a month of rehabilitation. If the injury heals according to schedule, that would enable him to return to action just in time for the start of basketball season.

Basketball is the younger Carey’s first athletic love. The 6-foot-3 forward was an honorable mention NEWS All-Maine selection and first-team All-Big East Conference choice last winter, averaging 16.9 points and 8.0 steals to lead the Ponies to a 16-2 regular-season record. He subsequently was named to the NEWS Eastern Maine Class B all-tournament team, averaging 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in two games as Foxcroft advanced to the regional semifinals.

Carey also is a pitcher and shortstop for the Foxcroft baseball team, which qualified for the Eastern B quarterfinals last spring.

“Matt’s a great kid,” said Withee, whose Ponies are the reigning Class C state champions. “I got a chance to coach him in baseball and coached him in football when he was a freshman.

“It meant a lot to me that he came out for football his senior year without me bugging him to come out. He was easily one of our top players the first week of practice. He really seemed to be enjoying himself, and he was really getting after it.”

Carey wasn’t the only Pony hit by the injury bug during the team’s first scrimmage. Standout tailback-linebacker Bobby Gilbert suffered a shoulder injury, and is being fitted for a harness this week, Withee said.

Champs collide in preseason tilt

High school preseason football games abound this weekend, including Bangor traveling to Lewiston and Brewer visiting Bucksport on Friday night.

But perhaps the most interesting exhibition game in advance of next weekend’s season openers comes Saturday night, and matches the reigning Class B and Class C state champions. Belfast, which upended top-seeded Winslow in the Pine Tree Conference Class B championship game before defeating Gorham in the state final, will travel to Dover-Foxcroft to face Class C state champ Foxcroft Academy, one of just two teams statewide – along with Class A champion Deering of Portland – to finish the 2003 season with an unbeaten record.

Both teams suffered significant graduation losses – including recent Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl participants Nick Arthers, Paul Herman and Ronnie Morse of Belfast and Josh Withee and Lincoln Robinson of Foxcroft Academy – but both programs figure to be significant factors in their respective classes again this year. The opening kickoff from Oakes Field on Saturday is at 7 p.m.