SCARBOROUGH — Defending Class A boys’ soccer champion Cheverus High knew it had to clear balls out of the box. The Stags knew Matt Caron’s throw-ins were among the most dangerous weapons in Class A South.
Knowing something and stopping something are two different things.
Josh Morrissey and Caron converted set-piece opportunities into goals in the first 16 minutes and No. 1 Scarborough (15-0-2) rode that margin the rest of the way to win Wednesday’s Class A South title game 2-0 over the No. 7 Stags (10-4-4).
“Playoffs, every year it seems like we’re scoring – every team is scoring – on set pieces,” Caron said. “So we’re going to keep practicing and improving.”
The Red Storm will have two days of practice before Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. state championship game against Lewiston. The Blue Devils are 17-0-0 after routing Hampden Academy in the North regional final.
“We played them in preseason and they are easily one of the greatest offensive teams we’ve seen around here in a long time,” said Scarborough goalie Cameron Nigro. “The way they pass, their chemistry is great. They just ping it around and it’s really hard to keep track of, but our defense has been playing great and we’ve gotten better over the season so I think we’ll stand up to them pretty well.”
Cheverus beat Lewiston in last year’s state final after beating Scarborough in double overtime in the regional final. The Stags’ playoff winning streak stood at eight entering Wednesday’s game.
“I thought the first half we didn’t come ready to play and they did and a couple bounces went their way,” Cheverus Coach Colin Minte said. “A couple of mistakes. Two set pieces. A corner kick that we didn’t get cleared and a long throw in that we had difficulty handling.”
On Scarborough’s second corner kick, Cheverus’ defense had a chance to get the ball out of the box but was unsuccessful and the ball skipped toward Josh Morrissey, who was able to time up a bicycle kick that hooked past Cheverus keeper Jake Tomkinson (eight saves) 7:49 into the game.
At 15:30, Scarborough went up 2-0 thanks to Caron’s ability to throw the ball with speed and distance. Caron’s throw zoomed on a nearly flat trajectory over a teammate’s head, through Tomkinson’s grasp and into the net.
“I’ve never thrown one in the goal before,” Caron said. “I was trying to throw it to the front post and we had a guy there and it went over his head and the goalie tried to push it out of bounds and it deflected in. A crazy play.”
Cheverus pressured intently over the final 17 minutes, starting with a strong run by Andrei Vile. Known as one of the best defenders in Maine, Vile had been moved to striker to provide a spark.
Nigro (six saves) did his part with a diving save on a deflected shot with 13:40 left to play. Nigro had already begun to move toward the center of the goal when Alex Nason’s shot caromed off Scarborough defender Samuel Jacob and appeared headed for the left corner.
“The defense has been playing great for me all year so I knew I had to give them something in return,” Nigro said.
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