Hall-Dale's Magen Ellis and Waynflete's Adele Espy were quite a sight, lying on adjoining tables in the recovery tent following Saturday State Class C cross country race.

Deciding when to postpone games is always a tough decision. There's always a chance that you'll look bad if you postpone and the weather gets better, or you don't postpone and the weather is awful.

That being said, the Maine Principals' Association certainly could have done a better job with regard to Saturday's state field hockey championships.

It didn't take long for the local field hockey teams to come up with a Plan B once the state championship games were postponed on Saturday. Skowhegan, the Eastern A champ, will host both Eastern B champion Waterville and Western B champ Maranacook in scrimmages this week.

The Waterville Senior High School football is a threat in the Pine Tree Conference Class B playoffs.

There's still Gardiner to play, but the official season ended for the Cony High football team with Friday night's playoff loss to Lewiston. Cony fans had to like what they saw of their team this season.

If you're planning on going to the PTC Class B quarterfinal between No. 6 Mt. Desert Island and No. 3 Winslow on Saturday, leave a little early. Kickoff has been moved to noon.

The game is still at Winslow's Poulin Field, but the start time was moved up in anticipation of nasty weather later in the afternoon.

If the game time is moved again, we'll have the informaiton here.

Here's how I voted in this week media poll:

1. Lawrence
2. Bonny Eagle
3. Bangor
4. Gorham
5. Mountain Valley
6. Lewiston
7. Thornton Academy
8. Massabesic
9. Cape Elizabeth
10. Skowhegan

Richmond high school played its first game of the Western Maine Class D playoffs and cruised to an 8-2 win over Buckfield. The Bobcats played with forward Amy Russell, something that was in question until right before game time.

After being left off the Maine Soccer Coaches Association Class D all-star team, Richmond's Andy Harrington has something to prove.

The Lawrence High School football team is dropped to 54th in the nation in this week's maxpreps.com national high school football rankings.

The Bulldogs were 26th last week, but fell 28 spots to 54 after defeating Messalonskee 29-14 on Friday night.

Saturday's Pine Tree Conference game between Nokomis and Maranacook got a little testy toward the end after Nokomis coach Dave Evans felt the Black Bears were rubbing it in with the score 41-0.

Wet conditions have hurt Gardiner's offense the past two weeks, but the defense has been rock solid.

As I write this on Thursday afternoon, weather.com is predicting a 70 percent chance of rain for Waterville on Saturday. But even if Saturday is a washout, these games will get played sometime, so here's a look at how the semifinals involving local teams shape up. Interestingly enough, four of the five matchups were one-goal games when the teams met in the regular season. The exception is the Maranacook-Wells game, as those two teams haven't met this fall.

With the regular season winding down, here is my top 10 for this week:

1. Lawrence
2. Bonny Eagle
3. Gorham
4. Bangor
5. Mountain Valley
6. Lewiston
7. Thornton Academy
8. Massabesic
9. Cape Elizabeth
10. Skowhegan

The Lawrence High School football is ranked the 26th best team in the nation, according to the folks at maxpreps.com and NFLHS.com.

According to the poll found at nflhs.com, the 7-0 Bulldogs moved up 10 spots this week. Lawrence is the highest-ranked team out of New England (Ansonia, Conn. is ranked 36, Everett, Mass. is 44, and Boston College High is 74).

Only Don Bosco Prep of Ramsey, N.J. was ranked higher than Lawrence out of the Northeast. Don Bosco is ranked 12.

I won't go through all 64 possible outcomes of this weekend's games in the Pine Tree Conference Class A. We also don't know who's playing who just yet in the first round. But we do know where the games are:

This is still the first-round playoff preview, but there are a few games that needed to wait for the results of the prelims. Here they are:

The Maranacook boys soccer team sported a variety of unusual haircuts, true to custom this time of year.

Any team that enters the season with the task of trying to defend a long streak of titles can use that as motivation or it can be a source of pressure that is tough to handle.
The Monmouth Academy girls cross country team takes great pride in their streak of Mountain Valley Conference titles, which it extended to six on Saturday, and is able to deal with the pressure just fine.

Gardiner's Ryan Gay and Gorham's Davd Gushee knew they'd be no playoff after they tied for the Class A individial title Saturday at Natanis. But they held one anyway.

A couple matchups are still to be determined because of preliminary round games, and we'll look at those on Tuesday. Right now, here's a look at the matchups we do know for certain involving local teams:

Gardiner High School football coach Matt Brown believes his Tigers can still secure the top spot in the playoffs with a win at Leavitt next week.

For years, the Pine Tree Conference has been known as a power football league. Teams pound away at each other with tough ground games every week.

The PTC is still home to plenty of smash mouth football, but this season, more teams have taken to the air than in any recent season.

If you follow field hockey at all, you can appreciate how difficult it is to be a factor at both ends of the field like Skowhegan grad Michele Farley has been for Babson College this season.

As the only remaining unbeaten and untied team in Class A, Waterville takes over the top spot in my top 10 list this week.

With the regular season about to end, here is my boys soccer top 10. Of course, we'll have a much more accurate picture in a couple of weeks.

Not much movement this week, at least on my ballot. Thornton is in, Winslow is out, and Massabesic moves down a few spots.

1. Lawrence
2. Bonny Eagle
3. Gorham
4. Bangor
5. Mountain Valley
6. Lewiston
7. Gardiner
8. Skowhegan
9. Thornton Academy
10. Massabesic

As always, this is the work of me (Matt, the guy in that photo).

If we learned anything from Saturday's Gardiner-Winslow football game it is how far ahead Gardiner and Winslow are ahead of the rest of the conference.

Natanis pro Dick Browne will still be a familiar figure at Maine high school golf events since many of them, including the state team and individual championships, Browne has another week are held at the Vassalboro course.

The regular season winds down this week, and there are a couple important matchups on Tuesday, plus the KVAC games on Friday.

Not only is the Lawrence leading the Pine Tree Conference in scoring at 46 points per game, the Bulldogs are doing it with balance, and they're getting a number of players involved.

Friday night's 56-7 win at Mt. Ararat is a good example. In the first half, before both teams went to the second team and junior varsity players, the Bulldogs racked up 330 yards of total offense. Lawrence gained 174 yards on the ground in the first half, and added another 156 through the air.

AUGUSTA — The Cony High School football team is happy to have its first winning streak in over three years, but wasn't very happy with how it played in a 24-23 overtime win over Brewer.

A number of local athletes are enjoying fine seasons at Husson College in Bangor.

Lauren Blake hit .464 this spring for the Clark University softball team. Now that fall is here, the Messalonskee High School grad is continuing to shine on the field hockey field.

Here are a few extra items from some interesting games played on Thursday, including a milestone at Gardiner and two teams which almost got caught looking ahead to their next game.

The Maranacook football team travels to Wales Saturday for a key Pine Tree Conference Class B playoff game. The winner of this game between 2-3 Maranacook and 1-4 Oak Hill puts itself into playoff contention.

Here is my ballot in the weekly media poll. Be sure to check Friday's paper for the complete poll.

1. Lawrence
2. Bonny Eagle
3. Gorham
4. Bangor
5. Mountain Valley
6. Lewiston
7. Gardiner
8. Massabesic
9. Skowhegan
10. Winslow

With a week left inthe regular season, two-time defending Class A champion Gorham is once again unbeaten and leading this week's top 10.

Now that Cony's 27-game losing streak is over, the Rams hope they can start a winning streak.

As always, this field hockey list is solely the work of me (Matt, the guy in the outdated photo). It reflects games through Oct. 2.

Saturday's showdown between unbeaten Gardiner and six-time defending Class A champion Skowhegan should be a good one.

Monday's Hall-Dale/Winthrop field hockey game was such a good game in a great rivalry that I didn't have enough space to get everything in the story.

The most anticipated regular season game in the Pine Tree Conference Class B will be this Saturday, when undefeated Gardiner travels to Winslow’s Poulin Field to take on the undefeated Black Raiders. Barring any other setbacks, the winner has the inside track at home field throughout the playoffs.

Gardiner lead the league in points with 237 and is first in points allowed (36). Winslow is second in both categories, scoring 211 while surrendering 50. Gardiner has scored at least 46 points in each of its four games. Winslow hasn’t been held to less than 40 since Week 2 at Belfast.