FAIRFIELD – Pound the rock, knock a piece off until it splits.

The translation: keep working hard everyday until the ultimate is achieved.

Throughout the preseason, coach John Hersom preached the motto to some 70 players as motivation toward their state championship dreams.

If Lawrence wants to hammer pieces of the rock away and improve on last year’s semifinal finish, they must stay healthy, unlike last season, and must maintain their vicious defense from a year ago.

The Bulldogs enter the fall campaign after recovering last season from an abysmal 2004 with a third-place 6-2 regular season finish, thanks to Hersom, who enters his second season as coach.

“What coach Hersom brings is he makes us work hard, but makes it fun at the same time,” said Aaron Champagne, the projected starting quarterback. “That’s what makes him a special coach.”

Alongside a healthy Champagne, a senior, and with experience-a-plenty in the backfield, Hersom said most of his team’s offensive plays will come out of the wing-T formation and employ all four rushing threats.

“We know [a good running game] will only be accomplished by strong line play, great execution out of those people,” Hersom said.

Senior tailback Cory Church should get the most touches out of the backfield with fellow senior David Wallace blocking for him at fullback. Wallace said his number should be called on several hard-nosed running plays and a waggle.

Through the first week of preseason, Church said the team ran only four “bread and butter” plays in practice, and nothing else.

“Coach is a perfectionist,” Champagne said. “He wants us to get those plays down before we move on.”

On defense, the Bulldogs were more perfect than any other Pine Tree Conference team last season.

Not many offenses scored on Lawrence’s defense last season. The Bulldogs stifled offenses in 2005, allowing the least points per game in the 10-team PTC using their 5-2 base set, according to Hersom.

Now a year older, the secondary returns, featuring Champagne and Church at free and strong safety, and the coach’s senior twin sons, Tom and Mike Hersom, at cornerback. Hersom admitted he would have to work on the defensive line to remain the stingiest defensive in the east.

“We’re going to bring along our defensive front and our defensive ends to hopefully be at the par of the linebackers and the secondary,” Hersom said.

For the first time in a couple years the team won’t have to learn a new playbook. The coaching staff decided to keep the same offensive and defensive philosophies to allow for some consistency, Hersom said.

“They bought into it [the system] really well,” he said of last year. “We felt that to have some continuity, some carryover from what they learned a year ago, was going to be important.”

LAWRENCE BULLDOGS

2005 results: 6-2, lost to Skowhegan in PTC Class A semifinal

Head coach: John Hersom, 2nd year

Key players: Aaron Champagne, QB-FS, Sr.; Cory Church, RB-SS, Sr.; David Wallace, FB-LB, Sr.; Ryan Slaney, TE, Sr.; Devin Raven, TE, Sr.; Wayne Morrell G-LB, Sr.; Justin Micheau, OT-DT, Sr.; Jon Doyen, G, Sr.; Shawn Champagne, CB, Jr.; Tom Hersom, CB, Sr.; Mike Hersom, CB, Sr.

Outlook: With Aaron Champagne back under center after he missed two-thirds of last season with a broken ankle, the Bulldogs want to end a 10-year drought – and play on Nov. 18, the day of the Class A state championship game. Hersom anticipates that an experienced close-knit group of seniors will bring the Bulldogs back to the playoffs.