LINCOLN – Shey Gardner didn’t need any doctor’s prognosis as he lay on the muddied turf at Bucksport High School last Friday night.

He knew it was bad.

“It was a sprint pass right,” said the Mattanawcook Academy senior quarterback. “I rolled out right and was holding the ball waiting for my receiver to come open. After I threw it I saw two guys coming after me. I knew I was going to get hit but I’ve gotten hit a lot, but this time my arm got caught between them and I heard the crack right when they hit me.

“I knew something had happened before I hit the ground.”

Something turned out to be a dislocated left elbow.

“I broke my leg once snowboarding, and I felt the same kind of pain in my arm,” he said. “I was praying it wasn’t a fracture, because that’s what it felt like and looked like.”

The injury not only sidelined Gardner for the rest of the game, in which MA defeated Bucksport 15-6 in an LTC Class C semifinal, but likely will mark the end of his competitive football career – unless the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl comes calling next summer.

For Gardner, one of the very top students in his class, plans to study civil engineering in college next year, when the playbooks will be retired to concentrate even more on the textbooks.

So with Mattanawcook set to play Foxcroft Academy on Saturday in the Eastern Maine Class C final – and with a state title just two wins away – Gardner is left to be the best teammate he can be, his chance to contribute more directly taken away by the fate of a sport at its most physical.

“It’s a situation you never think you’re going to be in,” said Gardner. “You don’t think this is going to happen to you, especially in your last year. When it does, it takes a little bit to sink in, and it probably won’t sink in for me until Saturday when they put on their pads and I don’t.

“The only thing I can do is try to coach some of the guys that are taking my spot. Other than that, it’s all in their hands.”

Gardner started playing football as a third-grader, and watched older brother Tyler play the sport even before that.

Like many others his age in town, his love of the sport was buoyed by following Mattanawcook’s 1999 football team as it won the Class C state championship.

“I watched them win,” he said, “and ever since then it’s all I really wanted to do.”

Gardner continued to develop his game, and has been a key member of the MA varsity squad for the past three years. He’s played halfback, wide receiver, quarterback, outside linebacker, safety and cornerback for the Lynx.

This season was his first as the full-time starter at quarterback, and he led the LTC in pass completion percentage (48 of 78, for 61.5 percent) while guiding MA to a 6-3 regular-season record. He also ranked fifth on the team with 73 tackles as a linebacker and defensive back.

But perhaps his biggest contribution over the last two years – MA is 16-5 during that span – is something less visible but maybe more important.

“Shey has that intangible you can’t coach, he’s been such a leader for us,” said MA coach Art Greenlaw. “He’s obviously very bright, first of all, and a very good athlete. He’s just such a competitor, and football means so much to him.

“He knows the game, and he’s pretty difficult for us to replace because of that issue. Athletes can be replaced, but leaders are much more difficult to replace and he’s a great leader.”

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net