It’s not even the playoffs yet, but Waynflete junior Miles Lipton has already accomplished everything he wanted to this boys’ lacrosse season.

“I remembered what I’d said earlier in the season when the state championship was really far off,” Lipton said. “My goal for this season was to beat Yarmouth on senior night.”

On Thursday, the Flyers did just that – and in dramatic fashion, with Lipton scoring the winning goal in overtime for a 12-11 victory. It was his fifth goal of the game after he exploded for four goals in less than four minutes to help the Flyers (8-4) rally from a four-goal deficit in the second quarter.

“That (Lipton) is quite a special player – we had a hard time adjusting to him,” Yarmouth Coach David Pearl said. “That team played a really gutsy game – you can see why they’ve been so successful this season.”

With both teams coming off tough one-goal losses, Yarmouth (8-4) demonstrated its own resilience late in the fourth quarter. Down 11-10 with 9.7 seconds left, Cooper May buried a shot to send the game into overtime.

“That was entirely my fault, too. I lost the ball with 20 seconds left,” Lipton was quick to note. “A big part of becoming a good player and a good team is mental toughness. I remembered my brother telling me, ‘Flush it, get it out of your head because you can’t play thinking about something like that.”

Forgetting that mistake wasn’t a problem for Lipton, who found the back of the net with 2:21 left in the overtime period following a clutch save by Waynflete goalkeeper Will Armstrong on a shot by May. Armstrong finished with 14 saves.

“Oh my god, Will is amazing – that kid is so clutch,” said Waynflete senior Hank Duvall, who finished with four goals.

“We went back and forth – it was a mental grind. We just kept telling each other, ‘One play at a time.'”

Waynflete got off to a slow start, with the Clippers outscoring the Flyers 4-1 in the first quarter before adding another goal 1:44 into the second. May and Anders Corey – who finished with four goals – kicked off the game with two unassisted goals before Duvall scored from Lipton to put the Flyers on the board with 3:04 left in the first.

Gavin Hamm and Connor Senger added goals for Yarmouth before the end of the quarter, and Corey opened the second with goal to put the Clippers up 5-1. It was 6-2 with 7:30 left in the half after Duvall and Corey exchanged goals before Waynflete went on its run.

Oliver Burdick scored from Duvall off the ensuing faceoff. Lipton scored twice, then added two more after a Mitchell Adams goal, giving Waynflete an 8-6 halftime lead.

“Miles (Lipton) and Hank (Duvall) exploded,” Waynflete Coach Parker Repko said. “Once they start firing away and finding each other, it’s really tough to defend.”

Duvall capped off the seven-goal run 1:11 into the third quarter with a goal assisted by Lipton before Yarmouth found some life, getting three straight goals in just over a minute to tie the score 9-9. Silas Chappell scored two of them with the other from Michael Guertler.

Harry Millspaugh ended Yarmouth’s run before Corey answered with a goal for the Clippers, tying the score again heading into the fourth quarter.

Duvall scored with 3:26 left to give Waynflete a short-lived 11-10 lead.

Taylor Vortherms can be contacted at 791-6417 or

tvortherms@pressherald.com

Twitter: TaylorVortherms

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