FALMOUTH — Just three and a half weeks ago, the Yarmouth girls’ lacrosse team surrendered 20 goals to Falmouth in a lopsided loss. It was the most goals allowed this season by the Clippers, and matched a season high for Falmouth, which hadn’t loss since a season-opening defeat against two-time defending Class A champion Kennebunk.
Wednesday’s rematch in the Class A semifinals couldn’t have gone more differently.
With its best defensive effort of the season, third-seeded Yarmouth shut down No. 2 Falmouth’s potent offense, taking an 8-5 win.
Only Kennebunk had held the Navigators to fewer than 10 goals.
“We’ve been doing so much work in practice. I’m so proud of this team,” said Yarmouth senior captain and defender Sadie Carnes. “We put in the work and it showed today.
Yarmouth (13-4) will face No. 1 Kennebunk (16-0) in the state championship game Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland. The loss snapped Falmouth’s winning streak at 15 games, and the Navigators close the season at 15-2.
The Clippers started the season slowly because of youth and inexperience, said Coach Dorothy Holt. They’ve steadily improved.
“Then they just started to trust each other. I have to say, hard work pays off,” Holt said. “I told my team, you have nothing to lose, but you’ve been working so hard, you deserve to win this game.”
Yarmouth’s defense did an excellent job clogging shooting lanes. Often, a Falmouth player would pull her stick into shooting position, only to hold off, seeing no opening.
“We’ve been working a lot on our double teams, and those paid off for sure. We’ve been working on a lot of defenses. We used a mix of those today,” Carnes said.
With Yarmouth down a player because of a penalty, freshman goalie Grace Keaney made three saves in the final minute to prevent the Navigators from mounting a late rally. A newcomer to the position, Keaney stepped into goal after an injury to Regan Sullivan.
“I feel like if I made a big save, I could make the next,” said Keaney, who finished with six saves.
Yarmouth never trailed. The Clippers led 4-2 at halftime, and made it 5-2 on Neena Panozzo’s goal with 19:51 remaining.
With Yarmouth short-handed because of a penalty, Falmouth cut its deficit to 5-4 on a pair of Maeve Ginevan goals 18 seconds apart, but then the Clippers got goals from Carnes and Panozzo while Falmouth served a penalty. Sonja Bell’s goal, again with the man advantage, with 3:46 left pushed the Clippers’ lead to 8-4.
Falmouth played without one of its top scorers, Sloane Ginevan, who was attending an event at Notre Dame, where she’ll join the women’s lacrosse team next season.
“They put a lot of pressure on the ball in transition, and they forced a lot of turnovers,” Falmouth Coach Ashley Pullen said.
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