History has seemed to be more of an impediment than inspiration for Brewer High School’s football team, but not anymore.

As much as Brewer’s development from also-ran to playoff team and title contender is physical in nature, it was the mental part that propelled the Witches to championship status after 31/2 decades without one.

“It’s the mental part that usually takes longer than the physical part,” said Brewer head coach Ed Ortego, who arrived at the high school as an assistant coach and biology teacher 10 years ago.

Three years ago, Ortego went from assistant to head coach. Since then, Brewer has compiled a 24-7 record with three straight playoff appearances.

It has been one hurdle after another for the Witches, even during their current run of success. First it was making the playoffs, then winning a playoff game, then beating perennial Pine Tree Conference/LTC Class B pigskin powers Belfast and Winslow.

It was the last hurdle that took the longest time for the Witches to clear. It had been 14 years since the Witches walked off a football field victorious over Winslow.

Now the other orange-and-black team is preparing to play for its first state title since 1970. The Witches will take on West champ York in a 2:30 p.m. game at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland on Saturday.

“We knew this team would be special early, but we also knew there were lots of kids here who had to understand they had to be coached and not just get by on their athletic ability,” said Ortego, a Louisiana native who is returning to his home state to live with his wife after the current semester is over. “We have some great athletes, but our biggest challenge with this team is getting them not to freelance and play together as a team.”

All 42 varsity players began buying into that school of thought – along with the coaches’ constant preaching about doing things “inch by inch” – in preseason, but it wasn’t until late in the first quarter of last Saturday’s PTC title game against unbeaten Winslow, that they completely believed it.

“We kept asking them ‘Who are we? Are we a team that wants to be great, or are we a great team?'” Ortego said. “Against Winslow, we had consistent mistakes and sloppy play, and it started out that way again Saturday.”

Brewer had a touchdown taken off the scoreboard on its opening drive due to a holding penalty and then turned the ball over via fumble on its second possession in the first seven minutes. That had to have players thinking “here we go again” after having had 14 turnovers in their two previous games against Winslow, one of which was last season’s 14-0 loss in the PTC final.

“Were we worried? Sure. I know the players were rattled and that might have been what they were thinking, but we had to get them back on track, thinking inch by inch, and playing tough,” said Ortego.

Brewer’s next possession was a 14-play, 61/2-minute, 83-yard, game-tying touchdown drive aided by a Winslow penalty on a Brewer punt that gave the ball back to the Witches.

“We usually get on each other when we have mistakes, but our coaches focused on that, so today, we didn’t give each other crap and just kept rolling,” said two-way starting lineman Matt Wilson, one of 13 seniors and five returning starters. “We basically decided we weren’t going to let it bother us anymore.”

The rest of the game was an orange crush for the Witches as they finished with double the total yardage and time of possession and almost four times as many first downs (19 to 5), holding Winslow to one first down in the second half.

“They’re a very fundamentally sound team and they attacked us in a very fundamental manner,” said defensive coordinator Jim Poulin, whose Raiders have used the same formula to win three regional and two state titles the last six years. “Today you didn’t see teams try to trick each other. They basically said, ‘Here we come.’ They did it the old-fashioned way, and earned it.”

Ortego traces Brewer’s last bit of maturation to the Monday after a 21-0 regular season loss to Winslow five weeks ago.

“Our approach has far-reaching effects even though we designed it specifically for this team,” said Ortego. “In the last three weeks, we just decided we weren’t that mentally unsure team anymore. We’re no longer living in the past.”