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Boys’ lacrosse regional finals: South Portland repeats as Western A champ
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Western A boys’ lacrosse: South Portland wins regional title again
The defending state champs beat Thornton Academy, 12-4.South Portland players surround goalie T-Moe Hellier after a 12-4 win over Thornton Academy in Wednesday’s Western Class A title game at South Portland.SOUTH PORTLAND — A patient attack and persistent defense carried the South Portland boys’ lacrosse team to a second straight Western Class A championship Wednesday, as the Red Riots wore down Thornton Academy for a 12-4 victory at George E. Martin Memorial Field.
South Portland, the 2014 state champion, returns to the state final at 10 a.m. Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium. The Red Riots will play Eastern champion Brunswick.
Saturday’s championship game will be a rematch of last year, won by the Red Riots, 10-8.
So how did the Riots make it back to the state title game?
“It was all hard work, we’ve been at it for years,” said senior middie Chris Mitchell, who led the Riots with three goals and three assists. “It feels great.”
Possession decided this one.
“Ground balls and faceoffs,” South Portland Coach Tom Fiorini said. “We were very patient on offense. They run a really tight zone on ‘D,’ so patience is the key. Defensively, we wanted the midfield to get back and slow down their attack. We gave up I think two goals in transition, and that’s a big part of their game. We had to play smart lacrosse today and we did.”
And get back they did. Faced with Thornton’s lethal transition offense, which averaged nearly 14 goals per game this season, the Riots built big edges in ground balls (48-23) and faceoffs (15-4).
That, in turn, led to a considerable edge in possession, which accounted for South Portland’s advantage in shots (38-21) and shots on cage (30-12).
Senior attack Andrew Whipple bolstered the Riots’ attack with four goals and an assist. Senior attack Kam Andrews also had three goals, and draw specialist Lucas Michaud had two goals and two assists.
Thornton Academy was led by senior attack Zach Bryant, who scored twice. The Trojans also got goals from Thomas Pike and Gregory Ruff.
“There’s nothing to hang our heads about,” said Thornton Coach Ryan Hersey, whose teams have reached the regional final four times in the last six seasons. “Possession really was the difference. Our game plan defensively was to stay in close so we didn’t (get spread out). Once we did (get spread out) we were in trouble because they pass the ball so well. They don’t even have to get their heads up to pass; they just know who is where and where the ball is going.”
South Portland took a 2-0 lead six seconds apart as Michaud fired the rebound of a shot past Chris Camire (18 saves) with 9:06 left in the first quarter, and Whipple buried a pass from Michaud off the faceoff at 9:00. Bryant and Isaac Sinclair answered for Thornton and the teams ended the first quarter tied at 2.
Andrews scored from the high slot (7:50) and in close (4:36) to give the Riots a 4-2 lead at halftime.
South Portland outscored Thornton 4-1 in the third period and put the game away with a 4-1 burst in the fourth.
“It all starts with possession. GBs win games,” said South Portland senior goalie T-Moe Hellier (eight saves). “That’s been our motto since freshman year and we’ve been able to capitalize on it lately. And then (Michaud) came in and started winning faceoffs for us, and that’s always nice.”
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Eastern A boys’ lacrosse: Brunswick returns to state title game
The Dragons beat Messalonskee, 21-4, in the regional final.BRUNSWICK — The top-seeded Dragons of Brunswick High needed less than a minute to take a lead, and less than five to establish their dominance.
They quickly turned the Eastern Class A boys’ lacrosse championship into a rout, dominating No. 2 Messalonskee 21-4 Wednesday evening at Brunswick High to return to the state final.
Brunswick (15-0) will face Western Maine champ South Portland on Saturday morning at Fitzpatrick Stadium in the Class A title game, for the second year in a row. The Red Riots won 10-8 last year.
On Wednesday against a team that had averaged nearly 11 goals against them in three previous meetings, the Dragons were relentless. Christian Glover scored in the opening minute. Shortly thereafter, Cam Glover, Kyle Woodruff and Cole Hillis scored in a span of 53 seconds as senior midfielder Ian Schlosser began a possession streak of 12 consecutive faceoffs.
“That’s not normal,” said Brunswick Coach Don Glover. “He’s an exceptional faceoff midfielder. When you have somebody like that, you get to take advantage of possession. In this game of ebb and flow, the more you possess, obviously, the more you can dictate the pace of the game.”
T.J. Sullivan wound up with seven goals for Brunswick, which opened a 5-0 lead before Messalonskee (10-5) broke up the shutout on a goal by Dylan Jones in the eighth minute. It was 6-1 after one quarter and 14-2 at intermission.
Because Brunswick led by a dozen, the entire second half was played under running time.
“We played them three times before and they’ve been really close games,” Sullivan said of the earlier contests with Messalonskee, 19-12 and 17-13 wins in May and a 15-7 victory in the KVAC championship game in early June. “This game was kind of an outlier to those. We really played well. Everybody was firing on all cylinders.”
Matt Brooks led Brunswick with six assists. Ryan Croatti and Cam Glover each scored three times, with Glover adding three assists. Woodruff finished with two goals and two assists. Brooks, Hillis, Christian Glover, Owen Ginty, and Tyler Hillis each scored.
“They’re the best team in the East other than us,” Brooks said. “We respected them. We knew they were going to come out hard.
“Once we got those first five goals, though, we just kept rolling. We didn’t let off the gas pedal.”
Schlosser won 15 of the 18 faceoffs in the first half to maintain control. The Dragons wound up with a 29-9 advantage in shots before intermission and goalkeeper Mitchell Smith made five saves to frustrate the Eagles on the rare occasions they attacked.
“I think they’re going to be very tough to beat in the state game,” said Messalonskee Coach Tom Sheridan. “They played well in every facet of the game – goaltending, clearing, ground balls, everything. It showed our younger team what they need to do next year.”
Brunswick boasts 16 seniors to Messalonskee’s four.
The Dragons erased any comeback hopes by scoring the first seven goals of the second half.
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Western B boys’ lacrosse: Capers heading back to state championship
Cape beats Falmouth 12-4 in the regional final.CAPE ELIZABETH — If you boiled down the Cape Elizabeth boys’ lacrosse team’s burgeoning dynasty to two cornerstones, aggressive on-ball defense and balanced scoring would be it.
The Capers used that winning blueprint to collect another regional title Wednesday night.
Playing Falmouth in the Western Class B final for the seventh straight year, the top-seeded Capers got goals from seven players and held the second-seeded Yachtsmen without a goal for the final 26 minutes for a 12-4 victory in front of a huge crowd at Hannaford Field.
Cape Elizabeth (12-2) has won 12 regional championships since lacrosse became a Maine Principals’ Association-sanctioned activity in 1998.
Cape will play for its 10th state title when it takes on Yarmouth (12-3) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium. The Capers have beaten the Clippers in the state final each the last two years.
“Every time winning this gets more exciting,” Cape senior captain Noah Haversat said after lifting the title plaque. “You’re playing in a town that’s built off lacrosse and built off a dynasty, and you have to live up to that.”
Falmouth (10-4) had scored nine second-half goals to come from behind and beat Cape 11-9 in the regular-season finale June 2, ending a seven-game losing skid in the series.
The Yachtsmen found it tougher against a much more hostile defense in the rematch, turning the ball over 28 times and going 0 of 6 on the man advantage while managing just five long-range efforts on Cape goalie Alex Narvaez (nine saves) in the second half.
“They played very aggressively and we didn’t do a great job handling that pressure,” Falmouth Coach Mike Lebel said. “They had a good game plan and they came out and exploited our weaknesses.”
Haversat’s versatility also played a key role after Devin Russell of Falmouth scored his second goal in 55 seconds to make it 4-4 with two minutes left in the half.
That’s when Haversat, who made the transition to defense from midfield before the season, put down his long pole and joined the offense, scoring on an individual move from behind the cage to put Cape up by one at the half.
After helping his team kill off a two-minute penalty, Haversat scored another early in the second half to make it 6-4 as the Capers began to pull away.
“It’s not something you forget how to use,” Haversat said of picking up the short stick again. “Having that in our arsenal was big tonight because (Falmouth) may not have planned for it.”
Ben Shea and Owen Thoreck led the Capers with three goals apiece, and Griffin Thoreck added a goal and two assists.
Russell’s two goals led Falmouth, and Jack Scribner and C.J. Leighton both had a goal and an assist.
Bryce Kuhn of the Yachtsmen, who had penetrated the Capers’ defense to score six goals in the June 2 game, was focused on by the defense throughout and held scoreless.
“Our defense was 100 percent better tonight,” Cape Coach Ben Raymond said. “The defense we’re trying to play is hard work and tonight we were up to the challenge. That made the difference.”
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Eastern B boys’ lacrosse: Yarmouth wins championship again
The Clippers defeat NYA 10-4 in the regional final.YARMOUTH — Bill Jacobs finished with three goals and second-seeded Yarmouth clamped down on defense Wednesday to win the Eastern Class B boys’ lacrosse championship with a 10-4 victory against fourth-ranked North Yarmouth Academy.
The Clippers (12-3) will play Cape Elizabeth for the state title at 12:20 p.m. Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland – the third straight year they’ve met in the final, with Cape winning the last two.
“We wanted to come in and spin the ball around fast,” Jacobs said. “We really turned it up and executed well in the second half.”
In a first quarter marked by strong defense for both teams, Jacobs scored with 9:38 remaining.
After Jake Rasch tied it for the Panthers, Jacobs gave Yarmouth a 2-1 lead with 12 seconds left in the period.
“We had kind of a slow start,” Clippers Coach David Pearl said. “But once they settled down and started playing confidently, we began to move the ball around and began scoring in transition.”
NYA scored first in the second quarter, when Trevor Lachance connected from 1 yard to make it 2-2.
Midway through the quarter, three goals were scored in a minute, with Henry Venden and Tim Pietropaoli scoring for Yarmouth, and Lachance countering for NYA.
The Clippers led 4-3 at halftime.
When the game resumed, the Clippers took over.
Attackman Will Garrett scored first on a 5-yard overhand shot with 9:36 remaining in the third quarter. Then Pietropaoli scored his second goal of the game to give Yarmouth a 6-3 advantage.
Joe Oliva, who assisted both goals to begin the second half, scored from 5 yards away with less than a second remaining in the third period, giving Yarmouth a 7-3 lead.
The Clippers allowed one goal in the second half.
“Our defense is really dominant,” Pearl said. “We have a veteran group that’s played together for three or four years. They work incredibly hard in practice and it shows in games like today.”
The Clippers then put the game away early in the fourth quarter when Remi LeBlanc found Jacobs for his third goal of the game.
Silas Chappell and Samuel Morris also scored in the quarter for the Clippers, who pulled out to a 10-3 advantage with two minutes remaining.
The Panthers scored their final goal with 1:58 to play when Rasch scored unassisted from 2 yards.
“The shot selection for us needs to be better moving forward,” Pearl said.
“D.J. (Nicholas of North Yarmouth Academy) is an incredibly good goalie, he’s hurt us before, but we were able to get some separation at the end.”
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