For the first time in many years, there is no back burner or big picture for the Lewiston and Edward Little football teams.

Next week is a non-factor. Both the Blue Devils and Red Eddies are out of playoff contention. Saturday’s 1 p.m. clash at Walton Field in Auburn is their final game of the season, guaranteed.

So there has been less emphasis on the future and many more references to the past as both teams went through their paces in preparing for the present.

“It has become the Super Bowl for both teams,” Lewiston coach Bill County said. “When you’re a playoff team, you’re still worried about your seed. We’ve had (former players) come in and tell their stories. We’ve been able to focus a little more on what the game means, so it’s been fun.”

Even without a place on the postseason ladder, and even discounting the obvious bragging rights, both programs have ample reason to treat the “Battle of the Bridge” with state championship intensity.

Lewiston (4-4) has a chance to finish above .500. Senior tailback Jeff Turcotte could sew up the Pine Tree Conference rushing title.

And the Devils would love to avoid a fate that hasn’t befallen them in the County era: Losing to their riverside rivals in back-to-back seasons. EL (3-5) won 26-7 in 2010.

“It’s a trophy game. The trophy means a lot to both sides,” EL coach Dave Sterling said. “Edward Little hasn’t won back-to-back games in the series since 1998-99. It shows you what a great job Bill has done over there.”

Both teams flaunt an array of offensive weapons that could keep any coach occupied with watching film and nursing a headache.

That hasn’t prevented County and Sterling from schooling their troops in the history of a rivalry that will be renewed for the 168th time.

Each man graduated from EL — County in 1976, Sterling in 1988.

“I go back to the days of (former Lewiston coach) Norm Parent, when there literally were battles on the bridge,” County said with a laugh. “I lost in that game senior year. We won the two previous years, but it didn’t matter. Senior year, that’s the big one and it’s the one everybody remembers.”

Few true geographical rivalries remain in Maine high school football. A changing job market, migrating population and fluctuating school enrollment have reduced Waterville-Winslow and Cony-Gardiner to preseason exhibition games. Consolidation claimed Rumford-Mexico and Jay-Livermore Falls.

Even the surviving series have been changed forever by youth sports travel teams and social networks that tie neighbors together.

“Pat Madden, who’s on my coaching staff, played against me in the ’75 game. If I saw him on the street then, I would have known who he was. But of course we didn’t text and we didn’t Facebook,” County said. “It is a smaller world, but I don’t think that has diminished it at all. You become friends with those guys over the years, and every time you meet with your buddies you’d like to have that on them.”

Sterling, who was a head coach at Scarborough and an EL assistant before taking the Red Eddies’ top job last season, played for Mike Haley in the mid-1980s.

In his final game at EL, the Eddies lost to a Lewiston team that went on to win the Class A championship.

“When I was growing up we were lucky if we could get a phone call across the river,” Sterling joked. “Now they talk all the time. We knew the people on the other team, but we didn’t really like them. Now we have kids who grew up in Lewiston that have moved to Auburn and play for us, and they have kids who started in Auburn. It’s a lot more transparent than it used to be.”

Conventional wisdom points to a high-scoring game.

Both teams tuned up with a win. Lewiston out-slugged Cony, 62-49, a week ago, while Edward Little rallied from a two-touchdown deficit and overtook Oxford Hills, 21-14.

“In my days at Leavitt, we scored 60 a couple of times accidentally. We didn’t really want to. This was out of necessity to stay ahead by more than a touchdown,” County said.

Turcotte (1,209 yards, 16 touchdowns) enters the game with 76 yards more than Shawn Carroll of Lawrence. Fullback Joe McKinnon (529 yards, 7 TDs) has given the Devils’ opponents a double-whammy in recent weeks.

EL has its own 1,000-yard back in Darnnell Hairston and two of the league’s three leading receivers in Alphonso Belnavis and Quin Leary.

Luke Farrago leads the PTC in tackles and tops the Eddies in that category for the second year in a row. Rudy Pandora, Caleb Johnson, McKinnon and Turcotte headline the Devils’ resistance.

Among the seniors Sterling will lead into their final game at EL is his son, David.

“It’s pretty emotional for everyone. For the seniors it’s their last game. It was where I had my last game,” Sterling said. “My oldest boy being a senior, it’s his last game. It’s a lot more emotional than I thought it would be.”

Hey, who needs a playoff?

“It’s a privilege to play in the game,” County said. “It’s one of the last real rivalries left. We take a lot of pride in that.”

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