LEWISTON — Wyatt Yager knew he had missed cashing in his scoring chances in the first half. But instead of getting discouraged that the game was scoreless at the break, the blonde-haired junior striker and his Marshwood High teammates came out of halftime with a flurry.

Yager scored two of the fourth-seeded Hawks’ goals, all coming in a 5-minute, 7-second span, to upset No. 1 Windham 3-0 Monday night in the Class A South semifinal. Marshwood advances to what appears to be the program’s first Class A regional final. Marshwood won back-to-back Class B titles in 1994-95.

“I usually get down about myself but today I knew I just couldn’t do that,” Yager said. “I just knew I had to keep going. Even though I’d missed some big opportunities.”

Marshwood (14-2-1), which had a 19-5 shot advantage, will face No. 7 Gorham (10-5-1) in regional final at Thornton Academy at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Windham finishes 15-2.

Marshwood’s midfielders clearly targeted Yager at the top of its attack, utilizing his speed, ball skills and finishing ability.

“We’ve been doing that all year. He’s proven it,” said Trevor Wozny, a senior captain and the driving force in the middle of the field. “Our offense is built through him. It’s all him.”

Declan Fitzgerald set up the first goal with a chip ahead that Yager ran onto and buried high into the net with a hard right-footed shot with 36:12 to play.

W0zny scored the second goal at 35:05 when his corner kick to the near post glanced off Windham keeper Colby Connelly (11 saves), who was trying to punch it away, and into the net.

Yager made it 3-0 when he put a left-footed shot on net that a diving Connelly got a piece of only to have it roll into the far corner.

Windham rallied over a 15-minute span to get some pressure on, but could not penetrate Marshwood’s all-senior defense. Marshwood sweeper Daniel Thim directed traffic in front of senior goalie Andrew Gray, who was called on to make just one save.

Windham was 3-11 and did not qualify for the playoffs in 2019, the most recent year with playoffs. The Eagles had only trailed once before this season, in a 4-0 loss to Gorham.

“We don’t have a ton of playoff experience on this roster. In fact, we have none, so when you get down a goal – it’s just something we haven’t been used to,” said Windham Coach Ben Schulz. “It just felt like we couldn’t regroup fast enough and we looked up and it was 3-0.”

Monday’s game, originally scheduled for Saturday but postponed by weather concerns, was shifted to Lewiston High’s artificial surface field because the Eagles’ field was still unplayable after absorbing over 4 inches of rain over the weekend.

From the start, Marshwood was the team winning more 50-50 balls, controlling the action. Windham showed an occasional flurry but its dangerous offense, led by Sam Glicos (three goals in the quarterfinal win against Portland), was contained.

At the half, Marshwood Coach Ben Deschene told his team “the storm is coming.”

“I did not envision (three goals in five minutes) but we have done that a little bit this year where we’ll miss three or four good chances in a row and then we’ll get one and we’ll score something quickly,” Deschene said. “So it is characteristic that it comes in waves with this team.”

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