CUMBERLAND — Greely High, the defending Class B boys’ soccer state champion, kept its unbeaten record intact Tuesday night but had to fend off Cape Elizabeth’s late-game rally to do it.
Hunter Graham and Dylan Fried scored in the first 51 minutes and Greely held off the Capers for a 2-1 victory.
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“I told the kids before the game I didn’t have a feel for this game tonight,” Greely Coach Mike Andreasen said. “We could win big, lose big and be somewhere in the middle. This was a little bit more of the middle for us.”
Graham, a midfielder, opened the scoring for the Rangers (5-0-1) after 21 minutes when he turned a rebound into his second goal of the season, after Cape goalie Andrew Kelly leapt to keep a 35-yard blast by Jacob Nason out of the left side of the goal.
Kelly knocked the ball away but it bounced off the crossbar and hit the left post before dropping in front. While Kelly scrambled to get back into position, Graham poked it in.
“(Nason) usually can find scoring opportunities out of nowhere,” Graham said. “I am always looking to play off him. He got a lucky shot there and I was there in the right spot at the right time.”
Fried, a defender, curled a shot under the crossbar from 35 yards. It was just out of Kelly’s reach for Fried’s first varsity goal, 11 minutes into the second half.
“I got the ball and I saw plenty of space, and I decided to just take a shot,” he said. “I didn’t see anyone to pass to so I took the shot.”
“Last year on the (junior varsity) team, Dylan played as a striker so he knows where the net is,” Andreasen said.
The Capers (3-2-1) came to life following Fried’s goal.
With less than 23 minutes left, Griffin Thoreck bounced in a shot from beyond the right side of the penalty area inside the far post for his second goal of the season.
It was the first goal allowed by the Rangers this season.
“They say in soccer 2-0 is the worst lead because you do relax,” Andreasen said. “Cape played with some desperation, but once they got that first goal in, then they played with confidence and they were all over us.”
“We sort of sat back on our heels a little bit but we got the result we wanted,” Fried said. “We still played well.”
For the game, the Capers held a 21-19 edge in shots with most of that advantage coming in the last 20 minutes, when they were awarded four of their six corner kicks.
Greely goalkeeper John Wright, who already has five shutouts this season, made six of his nine saves during the final 20 minutes.
“I think we had more possession than they did, but we made a couple of mistakes and they did a great job of capitalizing on those mistakes,” Cape Elizabeth Coach Ben Raymond said.
“We had plenty of chances offensively, but we get into the offensive third and we get bogged down a little bit.”
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