CUMBERLAND — The coach said he doesn’t look back but the goal-scorer said she used painful memories for motivation.

Greely High forward Ellie Schad timed a run perfectly to get onto a pass from Izzy Hutnak and slipped the game’s lone goal past Cape Elizabeth keeper Tessa Goldstein in the Rangers’ 1-0 win in a girls’ soccer game Monday.

Cape Elizabeth’s Grace Gillian steps in to play the ball in front of Greely’s Elli Schad during the Rangers’ 1-0 win Monday in Cumberland. Schad scored the lone goal of the game in the second half. Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer

In the Western B regional final last fall, Cape Elizabeth beat Greely 2-1 in penalty kicks.

“Whenever we play Cape you always have past years to remember,” Schad said. “It helps just to give yourself a little more energy just because you want it that much more.”

Greely (6-0) is atop the Class B South standings. Cape Elizabeth, which also beat Greely on its way to the 2013 state title, is 4-2.

Greely Coach Josh Muscadin liked the way his team created chances and the solid work in the back from the sweeper-stopper combination of Kelsey Otley and Maggie Reed in front of keeper Maddie Cyr.

But he cautioned that playing to avenge past losses isn’t the best approach.

“What happened in the past stays in the past,” Muscadin said. “We’ve got to focus on what’s now because if we stay in the past we’re not going anywhere.”

In the first half, Greely was usually going forward, taking 19 shots. Goldstein (11 saves) kept the game scoreless with two superior stops on Hutnak bids, once on a one-on-one break and the other on a diving punch of a hard shot.

Caroline Swaney was pivotal to the Greely attack opportunities, consistently winning balls and moving forward to provide an opposite side complement to Schad.

“She was on fire,” Muscadin said. “Courtney Sullivan was another player who gave me everything I wanted on the side.”

After Schad’s goal Greely quickly had two more top-notch opportunities. Anna DeWolfe’s left-leg flick of a Schad cross went over the goal. A long-range shot by Hutnak glanced off the top of the crossbar.

From that point, Cape Elizabeth began to win more 50-50 balls. The increased possession led to run-out chances for Kate Breed and Mariah Deschiano.

“We adjusted at halftime, we changed formation to try and match them and I thought the second half was a crackin’ game of soccer,” Cape Elizabeth Coach Craig Fannon said. “It was end-to-end, punch-for-punch. So, I was delighted with our adjustments and delighted with how the girls took to it and with a bit more luck at our end, we probably could have done enough to score a goal.”

With 29 minutes to play, Breed had a half-step on the Rangers’ defense and was able to get off a shot. The ball got past Cyr but she had deflected it just enough that it bounced wide of the goal.

The rest of Cape’s chances were limited to long-range shots or negated by the work of an improving Greely defense.

Greely’s first five wins were all by at least two goals but the Rangers did allow seven goals.

“Early in the season we were still trying to work out the kinks but we’re really starting to settle in,” Reed said.

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