FREEPORT—Most teams don’t respond well to a second half deficit.
But most teams aren’t the Yarmouth Clippers.
Who seem to thrive in that situation.
Wednesday afternoon at the Joan Benoit Samuelson Track and Field, the Clippers, the two-time reigning Class B boys’ soccer state champions, found themselves staring into the face of a historic loss, but they saved their best for last and rallied to hand host Freeport an agonizing defeat instead.
After a scoreless first half which saw the feisty Falcons earn six corner kicks but have nothing to show for it, they took the lead with 26:48 to play on a pretty goal from senior Kaiden Jacobs.
Freeport was able to cling to that advantage into the 71st minute.
Then, Yarmouth roared to life.
First, with 9:27 left, junior Zach Turkel scored his first varsity goal to tie the score.
Then, with the prospect of overtime looming, junior Justin Dawes buried a shot, his first varsity tally, and not only did the Clippers avoid their first loss to the Falcons this millennium, they had turned the tables and prevailed, 2-1.
Yarmouth is now 1-0-1 on the young season, hasn’t lost a game since 2020 and in the process, dropped Freeport to 0-1-1.
“The kids’ character came through,” said longtime Clippers coach Mike Hagerty, who has never lost to the Falcons in his 26 seasons. “I really believe it’s a karma thing. These kids do so many good things in our community and so many good things for the youth. When they were young, the upperclassmen did so many good things for them. They’ve bought in to working hard and doing things the right way. We turned it on when it counted.”
The spell continues
Yarmouth has long had Freeport’s number, but the Falcons have played the Clippers tough in recent years, including ties in each of the past four seasons and last year’s semifinal round thriller, which saw Freeport tie the game in the final minute of regulation, before then-junior Stevie Walsh first entered his name into legend with the decisive goal in overtime.
Yarmouth went on to win another state title and despite being hit hard by graduation, the Clippers are viewed as the favorite again this fall. Yarmouth started Saturday with a 1-1 home draw against Cape Elizabeth.
Freeport, meanwhile, has some holes to fill, but does return one of the state’s elite players in senior Alex Graver, who converted a second half penalty kick in the opening game to forge a 1-1 draw against visiting York.
Wednesday, on a beautiful early September afternoon (68 degrees at kickoff), in front of a boisterous crowd, the rivals put on the show and the Falcons appeared on the brink of finally solving their nemesis, but it wasn’t to be.
Freeport set the tone early, earning consecutive corner kicks. The first was tipped over the bar by Clippers junior goalkeeper Ian O’Connor and the second momentarily sat free in the box before being cleared.
Yarmouth’s first chance came in the eighth minute, when senior captain Owen Redfield had a good look in front, but sent the ball high.
After junior Adam McLaughlin missed just high and senior captain Liam Hickey’s dangerous throw was cleared, the Falcons came within inches of taking the lead in the 18th minute, but junior Emmanuel Ekogha’s shot was knocked away by a diving O’Connor.
Freeport senior goalkeeper Rowan Bradford stopped a header from junior Zach Kelly, Graver had a long bid saved by O’Connor and a late header from Walsh with Bradford off his line went wide, sending the contest to the break still scoreless.
The Falcons had a 3-2 edge in shots on frame and took six corner kicks to the Clippers’ one in the first 40 minutes, but weren’t able to break the ice.
That would change in the second half.
Yarmouth actually started stronger after halftime, but McLaughlin’s corner kick shot was tipped away by Bradford and with the goalie off his line, Dawes shot wide.
Freeport then transitioned back to offense and junior Owen Rusiecki set up Ekogha for a great look, but O’Connor dove to make the stop.
The Falcons kept fighting and ultimately were rewarded.
After junior Ivan Lyons sent a cross from junior Israel Bossay just high, a free kick from junior Garrett Ritcheson was headed away by Walsh.
Then, with 26:48 to play, Freeport went back on the attack and Bossay crossed the ball to Jacobs who wouldn’t be denied, one-timing a blast with his left foot to the left of the diving O’Connor for a 1-0 advantage.
“I was really happy with Kaiden’s goal,” said Falcons coach Bob Strong. “He has so much pride. He deserved that one.”
“I thought in the second half, we came out sharper and got numbers forward, then they scored on us,” Hagerty lamented. “They should have been up 2-0. They had an open net as well.”
Yarmouth had rallied back in its opener to tie Cape Elizabeth and would get an even better result this time, but initially, it appeared as if Freeport was going to protect its advantage.
Just seconds after the goal, Dawes had a shot blocked and senior captain Truman Peters missed wide.
After Hickey had a throw-in headed out of harm’s way, Dawes missed just wide and a Peters to McLaughlin feed was broken up at the last second by Bradford.
With 21:52 remaining, the Falcons nearly doubled their lead, as Graver set up Ekogha for a great look, but Ekogha missed just high.
“I thought for a good part of the game, Alex was the best kid on the field,” Hagerty said. “He was winning head balls, finding people. You really have to find him. (Israel) up top is dangerous, but he doesn’t score if Alex doesn’t do everything he does. If we can do a better job making life harder for Alex next time, it will make things easier for us.”
The Clippers then went back on the attack and after Peters’ header off a Hickey throw was saved, senior Wyatt Anderson couldn’t quite reach freshman Gideon Ahrens’ cross and a long shot from McLaughlin was snared by Bradford.
The clock ticked under 10 minutes and with history hanging in the balance, Yarmouth played its best soccer.
With 9:27 to go, Walsh sent the ball in, Dawes won a 50-50 ball and got it to Turkel, who didn’t rush, settled the ball, then fired it past Bradford to make it 1-1 and turn momentum for good.
“We weren’t concerned,” Turkel said. “It took us awhile to get one, we knocked on the door and knew it was coming. ‘JD’ flicked it over and I saw the ball bouncing over to me. I faked on my right. (The goalie) fell for it luckily and I just slotted (the ball) bottom left.”
“That was a class goal,” Hagerty said. “He could have shot that one early and he cut the ball back and found the side of the net. I loved that.”
A little over a minute later, Peters nearly put Yarmouth on top, but Bradford came out to stop him cold.
With 5:25 to go, Hickey nearly played the hero, but his bid hit the side netting.
“That was one of my favorite plays in the game,” said Hagerty. “Owen took a wonderful touch out wide, he cut the ball back, played a square ball to Steven. Steven found Liam and Liam almost scored a highlight goal.”
A mere 59 seconds later, the Clippers did strike for the go-ahead goal, with Dawes playing the hero.
The play began with another Hickey long throw. The ball came to Walsh at the back post and he sent it across to Dawes, who finished for a 2-1 lead.
“Liam had a long throw and I was the target,” Dawes said. “The ball went way over me, but then Stevie does what Stevie does. He was back post and he flicked it front post and I was there with the tap-in. We were feeling confident at that point, but we knew we couldn’t slow down because the game wasn’t over yet.”
“Justin’s goal was all about hustle,” Hagerty said. “We’ve played him a little bit in the back this year and I think he’s saying with his play, ‘Coach, leave me up top.’ He got better as the game went on. He’s one of the faster and stronger kids you’ll see. He can run like a horse and if we help him find the right runs at the right time, he’ll be very dangerous.”
Freeport had enough time to answer, but the Falcons managed just one shot, a long bid from senior Tristan Hatton, which O’Connor easily handled.
The Clippers were able to run out the clock from there and celebrated a very hard-fought 2-1 victory.
“It’s encouraging we can come back, but we don’t want to put ourselves in that position in the first place,” Turkel said.
“I think we do better when we’re facing adversity,” Dawes said. “Getting momentum when we tied it up really fired us up. We flip the switch when we’re down, because we know we have to work that much harder.”
“We were never worried, no panic,” Hickey said. “We knew we just had to keep playing. We had a lot of close calls and we knew we had to keep fighting and we’d eventually find a goal. We got two in at the end and that was big for us. It says a lot about our coaching. We’re prepared for every single game and every situation. Coach tells us these kind of games help us for playoffs.”
“We’re going to get better and cleaner,” Hagerty added. “We had a hard time in the first half finding feet and getting passes in the offensive third that meant something. Our kids are still trying to find what it fits us best. We got caught up too much trying to get a big ball. Our game should be finding feet first. With kids like Truman, Stevie and Adam, we want to play through our midfield, not over our midfield.
“Our kids have a lot of pride and take pride in the weight room. I feel that physical strength builds mental toughness as well. Maybe that preseason ranking (second in New England) went to our heads a little bit. We played well in the summer, but it didn’t have much impact on the fall. We have to be in games like this to grow. We had kids playing their first varsity minutes this season. I love our boys. They work hard every day and never quit.
“This was an important win. No one wants to play on grass in October, so we don’t want Greely to have homefield. Freeport’s turf is different enough from our turf that I’d rather play at our place or Cape than here and I’d much rather play at our place.”
O’Connor made six saves for Yarmouth.
Freeport finished with a 7-6 shots advantage, a 7-1 edge in corner kicks and got four saves from Bradford, but remains 0-for-the 21st Century versus the Clippers.
For now.
“I honestly believe that Yarmouth appeared to be in better physical shape than us in the last 10 minutes and we had trouble keeping us,” Strong said. “As a coaching staff, we need to maybe go deeper in our bench deeper to compensate for that. All in all, I’m really pleased with the heart this team showed here. Yarmouth’s a great team and we’ll see them at least one more time. I thought it was a very evenly played match until the last 10 minutes when they turned it on.
“It’s nice to see Yarmouth celebrating a victory against us like that. It shows us we’ve arrived, but we haven’t crested yet.”
Try again
Freeport plays its first road game Saturday, at Greely. The Falcons return home next week to meet Lake Region and Cape Elizabeth.
Freeport knows full well it will see Yarmouth again too (Oct. 8 on the road) and will keep banging on that door, hoping that eventually it will kick it in.
“I think there’s a lot of parity in the league again, which I’m happy to see,” Strong said. “It’s one game at a time for us. We’ll dial it in and look to Greely Saturday. We have two days to get ready.”
Yarmouth turns around and hosts York Thursday, then welcomes North Yarmouth Academy Monday before facing its next stern test, next Wednesday at Greely.
“We have depth as a program and we can push through,” said Dawes. “With the depth and fight we have, we’ll give York a challenge.”
“We can go 18-20 players deep,” Hickey said. ‘We have a lot of kids who can play and they deserve a chance. That will help us a lot tomorrow.”
“Our goal is to play our best in October and November, but today, I thought the effort was good,” Hagerty added. “I went deep in the bench because we play again tomorrow, so maybe some kids played more minutes than they were ready for, but they’ll be ready by the end of October. This year, we really do need to use our bench. This team has a very high ceiling.”
Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.
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