CUMBERLAND – Greely boys’ lacrosse coach Mike Storey rarely is wound up. “I’m a pretty calm person, all in all,” he said.
But, with his players huddled around him between the third and four quarters, Storey’s tone was neither calm, nor complimentary.
“I had a message I needed to get across,” Storey said.
The Rangers listened and dominated the fourth quarter to pull away for a 17-9 victory over York in a Class B semifinal Tuesday afternoon.
“He gets on us pretty good,” junior attack Andrew Lawrence said.
“But it got us to where we want to be – which is the state championship on Friday.”
Indeed, the top-seeded Rangers (11-3) will play Friday at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland against second-seeded Yarmouth (10-4), an 18-6 winner over third-seeded Brunswick. Greely and Yarmouth split two games this year, the Clippers winning in April, the Rangers two weeks ago, 13-5.
This will be Greely’s second straight trip to the title game The Rangers lost in overtime to Brunswick last year.
“It was a tough way to end,” Lawrence said. “We just wanted to get back.”
Lawrence did his part with two goals and a team-high five assists. Ethan Fraser led the scoring with six goals. Schuyler Wetmore scored five goals. Will Schumacher tallied twice, and Jackson Williams and Christopher Williams added one goal.
“We got a lot of kids who can score,” Lawrence said. “Everybody takes care of the ball.”
It looked that way when Greely took a 5-0 lead in the first 10 minutes.
“Five-to-nothing, self-inflicted,” York Coach Garrett McLean said. “Not just turnovers; silly plays, defensive mental lapses, offensive forcing possessions.
“Once we calmed down and realized the moment wasn’t too big for us, we were able to find a groove and gain some momentum.”
York’s Will Masterson scored his first of five goals with 10 seconds left in the quarter.
In the second quarter, with Greely ahead by six goals, Masterson again scored in the final minute for an 8-3 Greely lead at halftime.
York (7-7), the No. 4 seed, pounced in the second half with consecutive goals by Masterson, Marshall Ford and Tyler Humphrey, closing to 8-6.
“We’ve been down before and fought back, so we know what it’s like,” said York senior Miles Pavuk.
Two Greely goals increased the lead by four but, again, Masterson scored as time ran down. His goal with eight seconds left made it 10-7, entering the fourth quarter.
“Credit to York,” Storey said. “They started to execute well and put the pressure on us. We were on our heels.”
Storey gathered his players
“What we were doing out there was not good enough,” he said.
Then Storey watched his players respond in the final quarter, taking a 15-7 lead in the first eight minutes.
“Defensively, we started playing the body a little better. Offensively, we were getting the ball around with good movement,” Storey said. “We had a little bit of a stall but got the tires back on.”
One reason for the stall earlier were continuous penalties against that “got us a little off rhythm,” said Storey, who counted on goalie Sawyer Gagnon (10 saves) to stop York’s attack.
“Sawyer’s been great all year. Always steps up for us in the right moments.”
York goalie Derek Goldberg kept the Wildcats in the game with six saves. York reached the semifinals for the first time, after defeats in the quarterfinals the past two years.
“It’s a pretty big deal for us,” Pavuk said.
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