AUBURN - The Auburn Maroons Vanguard put in an out-of-this-world performance Saturday night and the hosts earned a first-place score in the annual Harvest of Sound field band competition.

Hundreds of spectators crowded Holland Stadium for the show - part music and part artistic performance - with eight school participating in four divisions.

Jordan-Elbridge placed first in its division, besting Norwich by less than 1 point.

An outer space theme, complete with shiny black, white and green costumes and shiny black goggles, was chosen by the Auburn team for this season.

“Each season we choose a different theme, said Jeff Wait, the band's visual caption. “One year our theme was prisons because of the city.”

Practice season for the Vanguard begins in early August when a theme is chosen and work begins to put together a show.

The band competes in several competitions throughout the season, and similar competitions are held throughout the state with various schools hosting.

Wait said that Auburn competes in eight of these competitions before the state finals, Nov. 1 at Syracuse University's Carrier Dome.

Although the weekly competition scores make no difference when it comes to the state finals, the winning schools each week receive credit and awards.

“These are a bunch of great, hardworking kids,” Wait said. “They are very excited to be performing before the people of their hometown.”

Each band has a possible 100 points that can be awarded, based on various aspects of the performance such as the visual effects and the musical performance.

In the previous two years the Auburn field band has placed in the top three at the state finals.