ORONO – The flip of a coin ended Orono’s season last year.

Head coach Bob Sinclair wants to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

“It was disappointing, not from a record standpoint, but disappointing from the coin toss standpoint,” said Sinclair, who is in his fifth year leading Orono. “You’d like to have it end out on the field.”

At the end of the regular season, Rockland, Bucksport and Orono tied with matching 5-4 records. And with Orono beating Bucksport, Rockland beating Orono and Bucksport beating Rockland, the natural tiebreaker couldn’t be used. So the league tossed a coin for the fourth and final playoff spot.

Rockland advanced to the playoffs.

But Sinclair and his team have moved on and are focused on this season.

“We should have a pretty strong year,” said Sinclair. “Our expectations are pretty high.”

With Kash Keezer returning, Sinclair has reason to be optimistic.

The senior quarterback finished third in passing yards with 564 in the LTC Class C ranks a year ago and completed 31 of 60 passes.

“This is his third year back under center for us,” said Sinclair of Keezer. “He got a little dinged up at the end of last year, but he’s healthy and he’ll have a great season.”

Not returning, however, is the leading receiver in the league, the graduated Seth Dwyer. And the depth Orono enjoyed last year won’t quite be the same.

“I think our biggest challenge is going to be depth,” admitted Sinclair. “We’re going to have a lot of kids who play both sides of the ball, so we have to make sure that we’re in shape.”

His players reiterated that point.

“Staying healthy is a big thing,” said senior captain Ben Perry.

“A challenge is making sure we stay away from injuries,” said Sinclair. “That’s called ‘luck,’ I think. We need a little luck.”

Sinclair added that while 16 seniors from last year are gone, many of this year’s starters are not new faces.

“All the kids who are seniors now played [last year],” said Sinclair. “A lot of them platooned with last year’s seniors.”

Marcus Leek, Blaine Silk and Mohammed Garcia all will see time at halfback for the Red Riots after gaining experience last year.

“We have a very, very solid backfield,” Sinclair said.

Everyone being on the same page is important for the Red Riots.

“We have to be good leaders and show by example,” said Silk, a senior who is one of eight team captains. “If we don’t work together, there’s no chance we’re going to win.”

Executing will be key for Orono as Sinclair learned last year.

“Five-and-four might get you there,” Sinclair said. “We just hope that we can be in the top four.”

ORONO RED RIOTS

2007 results: 5-4, tied for 4th in LTC

Head coach: Bob Sinclair, 5th year

Key players: Kash Keezer, QB-FS, Sr.; Ben Perry, FB-DE, Sr.; Marcus Leek, HB-CB, Sr.; Blaine Silk, HB-DE, Sr.; Ethan Dana, RB-WR, Sr.; Jake McAlinden, TE, Jr.; Brandon Levasseur, WR-SS, Jr.; Jake Paul, OT-DT, Sr.; Mohammed Garcia, HB-WR-CB, Sr.

Outlook: The Red Riots should be as good if not better than last year with the squad returning veteran and skilled players. Keeping players healthy could be Orono’s biggest weakness. A key player knocked out due to injury could affect both offense and defense. Making it back to the playoffs is Sinclair’s main goal.