YARMOUTH – Top-ranked Yarmouth beat third-seeded Falmouth for the third time this season, capturing its second Western Class B boys’ soccer championship in three years Wednesday night with a 1-0 overtime victory.
The Clippers (16-0-1) will play Ellsworth, the Eastern Maine champion, for the state title Saturday at a site and time to be determined.
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Cotter Jackson won the game with a shot from 6 yards after six minutes of sudden-death overtime.
“Going into this game, we knew we were facing a Falmouth team which was finally healthy, and we knew they were going to come at us,” Yarmouth Coach Mike Hagerty said.
“We had our chances at the end of regulation and we weren’t able to put it away, and that comes back to grab you,” Falmouth Coach Dave Halligan said. “It was good defense between two good teams that play hard and have a lot of respect for each other.”
On Sept. 11, Yarmouth beat the Yachtsmen 1-0 at home.
On Oct. 12, the Clippers recorded a 2-1 victory on Falmouth’s new turf field.
Falmouth held a 7-3 edge in shots on goal during the 80 minutes of regulation play, but neither team was able to get off an accurate shot from inside the penalty area until Jackson’s winner.
“I thought our guys did a good job in the midfield limiting their good chances,” Hagerty said. “You knew it was going to come down to something simple, like keep the ball low and keep it on frame.”
That “something simple” was a new wrinkle, which called for Yarmouth goalie Chris Knaub to run up the field to take the throw-ins from the sidelines deep inside Falmouth territory.
“He’s very accurate with it, even more accurate than our corner kicks, so we have the ability to tell our runners where to go and know the ball is going to be there,” Hagerty said.
Jackson’s goal was set up by one of Knaub’s long throw-ins from the right side.
“I just try to put it into the middle 6 (-yard line) and have someone run onto it,” said Knaub, a former field player who has handled throw-ins in previous seasons.
On his final throw-in, the ball came down just outside the box on the right side of the goal.
“The ball popped out and I saw Ryan Maguire had it lined up for a shot,” Jackson said.
“It was little mishit by him and luckily I just tapped it in.”
“You could see he was patient, and he struck it well and struck it low,” Hagerty said. “A lot of players would strike it hard and hit it wide or put it over the crossbar.”
With the game on the line, Jackson kept his cool.
“Often I can get a little ahead and get a little above myself,” he said.
“But this time I just didn’t think. The ball came on my foot and I just tapped it.”
Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:
pbetit@pressherald.com
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