LEWISTON — Cape Elizabeth’s senior midfield duo of Maggie Cochran and Emily Supple are a goal-scoring problem most opponents cannot solve. They are a soccer Rubik’s Cube, or a Sunday Times crossword puzzle.
In the Class B South girls’ soccer championship game Wednesday, Yarmouth contained Cochran, with multiple defenders shadowing her at all times. But the Clippers had no answer for Supple, who scored three goals to lead Cape Elizabeth to a 3-0 win at Lewiston High.
“They had two, three people on her (Cochran) every time she got the ball, and that created a lot of openings for me, which ended up being great, because my teammates made some beautiful balls into me, some great passes,” Supple said.
Cape Elizabeth (16-1), the No. 1 seed, will play for the state championship Saturday against Hermon at Massabesic High School in Waterboro. The Capers won state crowns in 2018 and 2019. No playoffs were held in 2020 because of the pandemic.
No. 2 Yarmouth ends the season at 15-2-1, with both losses coming to Cape Elizabeth.
“They are two of the best around for a reason, They were two of our focal points going into this game, and it worked for a while,” Yarmouth Coach Andy Higgins said of defending Supple and Cochran. “Then they got us, and when they get one, it turns into two or three. They are a challenge. They’re a tall order for anybody.”
The Capers and Clippers split a pair of regular-season games, with Yarmouth’s 3-2 victory coming at Cape Elizabeth on Oct. 5. The Capers had a lead in that game, and learned to take nothing for granted.
“That game was one of our most important games ever,” Cochran said. “It was the best thing for us that we lost. We needed that loss to push us, to teach us we can lose. From that game on to get here, we’ve done so much work, so much team bonding. We’re at a really good place as a team right now.”
Supple broke the scoreless tie with 2:17 left in the first half when her shot from 15 yards went into the top right corner, just out of the reach of keeper Regan Sullivan.
“The first half, I felt like we were moving the ball really well. We just couldn’t get that final shot in the net,” Supple said. “When I got there, I just had the space and saw the opening. I hit it, and honestly, wasn’t expecting much to happen.”
Three minutes into the second half, Supple took a pass from Carolyn Gentile and fired a shot into the lower left corner. The, with 26:45 remaining, Supple pushed in a header off a Penny Haydar pass.
Focusing on containing Cape’s prolific offense made it tougher for the Clippers to mount an attack of their own. Yarmouth’s best chance to score came with 16 minutes left, when Aine Powers’ shot off a pass from Ava Feeley hit the crossbar.
“We tried to be compact as a defensive unit and catch them on a counter, but they make that difficult. We just got stretched out a little too far, and it made it difficult for us to get numbers forward when we got the ball forward,” Higgins said.
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