SCARBOROUGH — The margin between the top boys’ soccer teams in Class A South is razor thin, so it was fitting that a few inches of placement proved the difference in Falmouth’s 1-0 win Wednesday night at Scarborough.
Mason Farr scored after he collected a loose ball off a corner kick with 9:36 left. Scarborough keeper Nicholas Ouellette got a piece of Farr’s shot, but it deflected in off the inside of the crossbar.
“I saw the ball come up and my first instinct was to let the ball come down and keep my composure, so I just touched it and kind of half-volleyed it a little bit and just hoped for the best. There were a lot of defenders there, but got it through. That’s all that matters, it was a goal,” Farr said.
At the other end, Scarborough had two shots hit the right post and stay out. First, it was defender Nicholas Connolly’s long chip that hit the post and then the crossbar but stayed in the field of play. In the ensuing scramble, Scarborough had at least two other shots carom off defenders.
“I was really happy, I had guys all around the box, so I was very happy about that,” said Scarborough Coach Mark Diaz. “I’ve never seen a ball do that, roll up the post like that, with a spin I’ve never seen, but that was the kind of night it was for us.”
“I think we got blessed by the soccer gods on that play,” said Falmouth keeper Justin Mayo.
Then, with 2:15 left, Scarborough junior Zander Haskell, who has 15 goals this season, got free and rifled a shot that hit the same post and caromed out of play.
“That’s the game. We’ve been on the other side this year. It was our turn tonight,” said Falmouth Coach David Halligan.
Falmouth, the 2019 Class A state champion, improved to 10-1-1. Scarborough is 9-2 after its second straight one-goal loss.
The victory will be a significant Heal points boost for Falmouth, which finishes its regular season with games against South Portland and Portland – two more dangerous teams. If the Navigators win both, they’ll likely finish at least in the No. 2 spot behind Windham. That would guarantee Falmouth a home-field path until the regional final, which will be at Thornton Academy.
“That’s what we’ve been thinking about since the beginning of the season, to get as many wins as we can to get our seed up there and hopefully play on our home field,” Farr said. “It’s just great to play on our home field. We always dominate on our home field. … We’re just going to keep coming. We’re not done yet. we want another state title.”
Scarborough now has to take a different approach. After being ranked first in Class A South for most of the season, the Red Storm are now in danger of slipping out of the top four.
“There’s six or seven teams that could end up in a regional final and we’d like to think we’re one of them,” Diaz said. “We don’t care where we’re seeded. We don’t care where we play.”
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