The Falmouth boys’ soccer team had anticipated christening its new home Tuesday night, but the wet weather didn’t necessarily disrupt those plans.

Instead, it was wet paint.

Falmouth recently built a new athletic facility that includes a new track and a multipurpose artificial turf field, which will be used by several of the Yachtsmen’s athletic teams, including the boys’ and girls’ soccer team. But while lines are on the turf for soccer and football, lines for field hockey and lacrosse are still being painted and have yet to dry — with little help from the wet weather that hit the area Monday and Tuesday.

With the lines yet to come, the first boys’ soccer home game against York on Tuesday was postponed.

“It was a matter of time,” Falmouth Coach Dave Halligan said of the upgrades. “There are some things you can’t control.”

The Western Maine Conference game has been rescheduled to 7 p.m. on Oct. 16. The Yachtsmen will play their first game on the new surface at 7 p.m. Saturday against rival Greely, part of a day on the turf that also includes Falmouth’s 1 p.m. football game against Wells.

“It’s going to be exciting to finally have a home field,” said Halligan, whose team plays Thursday at Freeport. “We’ve been practicing on a practice field. Night games have always been exciting. The game has been postponed a couple times so the boys are ready for this.”

Falmouth has had recent success on artificial surfaces, winning the 2009 Class B championship on the turf field at Scarborough High School’s Mitchell Sports Complex. However, both of Falmouth’s losses this season have come on synthetic surfaces — a 1-0 loss Sept. 11 at Yarmouth and a 2-0 loss Sept. to Cape Elizabeth at Hannaford Field.

“We now have plenty of time to practice on it and it will benefit us in the way we play,” Halligan said. We’ve always played pretty well on turf. Just getting used to the size and the speed, the game is a little bit faster. There will be a learning curve. But we’ve played a lot of games on turf so it shouldn’t be as difficult.”

 

WHILE FRYEBURG Academy has struggled early in the season, Raiders Coach Bob Hodgman-Burns regards Friday’s 1-0 loss at home to Yarmouth as a confidence-builder for his team.

“It was pretty much a defensive struggle,” Hodgman-Burns said. “We had some opportunitees and their keeper made some incredible saves.”

Yarmouth goalie Chris Knaub made two key saves to help the shut out the Raiders.

Luke Pierce scored the lone goal for the Clippers in the 27th minute, but Fryeburg Academy had a pair of prime opportunities to tie the game in the first 10 minutes of the second half, when Wyatt Andreoli picked up Milos Mijokov’s rebound and shot it directly at Knaub.

After making the playoffs last season, the Raiders opened this season 2-5. The Raiders start the second half of the season Tuesday at Cape, including games against Lake Region, Traip Academy, NYA and Sacopee Valley.

 

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at: rlenzi@pressherald.com