YARMOUTH—Greely’s boys’ soccer team had waited long enough.

It was time to beat nemesis Yarmouth on the Clippers’ home turf.

And Tuesday afternoon, the Rangers managed to do exactly that, perhaps staking claim as the team to beat in Class B South in the process.

After an even first half ended scoreless, Greely struck with 27:06 left in regulation, off a nice passing sequence, as senior captain Owen Piesik set up junior Connor Skillin for the game’s first goal.

And what proved to be the game’s only goal.

The Rangers never let Yarmouth get a great look at an equalizer and went on to slam the door on a 1-0 victory.

Greely won its sixth straight contest, improved to 6-0-1 on the season, dropped the Clippers to 4-1-2 and most importantly, won in Yarmouth for the first time in a decade.

“Hopefully my seniors played their last game here,” said longtime Rangers coach Mike Andreasen. “It took us 10 years to win here and it’s good that they can go out with a win.”

Rewriting the narrative

Since Greely upset Yarmouth in the 2013 Class B South Final, in Yarmouth, the Clippers have dominated the Rangers, not surprising considering they’ve won eight of the past nine Gold Balls.

Greely started to turn the tide last year by splitting with Yarmouth and less than three weeks ago, the teams opened the season against each other in Cumberland and settled for a 1-1 draw.

Both teams had surged since.

Yarmouth gave new coach Justin Morrill his first victory at Gray-New Gloucester (3-0), then blanked host Brunswick (2-0) and visiting York (3-0) before settling for a 1-1 home tie with Cape Elizabeth. Saturday, the Clippers shut down visiting Wells, 4-0.

Greely, meanwhile, defeated visiting Fryeburg Academy (5-1) and Cape Elizabeth (1-0), then blanked host Waynflete (5-0) and Freeport (6-0) before shutting out visiting York Saturday, 3-0.

In the teams’ first encounter, the Rangers got a first half goal from Piesik and senior Zacarias Binda answered for Yarmouth in the second half.

Tuesday, the Clippers looked to defend their home turf, but instead, Greely won in Yarmouth for the first time in a decade (1-0 back on Sept. 9, 2014).

Yarmouth sophomore Lucas Hayner and Greely senior Owen Piesik fight for a ball in the air early in the Rangers’ 1-0 victory Tuesday. Hoffer photos.

The Clippers had the game’s first good look, two minutes in, as Binda crossed to junior Gideon Ahrens, but Ahrens shot high.

After Yarmouth junior back Ian Lawrence broke up a feed from Piesik to senior Bez Mendelsohn, Mendelsohn missed wide off a long throw from senior Sam Anania.

A free kick from the side off the foot of junior Hunter Caiazzo was punched away by Clippers’ senior goalkeeper and captain Will Raymond, then Piesik had a shot deflected just wide before junior Cade Potts ripped a shot high.

In the 14th minute, junior Nate Buchanan got to an Ahrens through ball and appeared to have room for a split second, but Greely junior goalkeeper Landon Dominski came out and broke up the play.

A free kick from Yarmouth junior George Brown then landed in the box untouched and a one-timer from senior Ward Jenkins went wide.

In the 28th minute, Mendelsohn set up Piesik for a shot which went just wide.

At the other end, Lawrence got his head on a long free kick from Jenkins, but Dominski made the save.

Late in the half, Clippers senior Luis Cardoso set up sophomore Lucas Hayner for a shot which went just high and at the other end, senior back Bobby Wolff broke up a Mendelsohn rush.

With 2:24 remaining before halftime, the Rangers believed they took the lead, as after Caiazzo served the ball in, Piesik knocked the ball loose from Raymond and sent it into the net, but the officials ruled Raymond had possession first.

Each team had two corner kicks in the first 40 minutes, while Yarmouth had a slight 3-2 edge in shots on frame.

When the second half commenced, Greely remained confident and eventually was rewarded.

Greely senior Mason Rogers plays the ball as Yarmouth senior Luis Cardoso gives chase.

Again, the Clippers had the first chance, but Brown was off target on a rush.

After Potts booted away a cross from senior Alec Gagnon, Cardoso got into the box, but sophomore Holden Pierce knocked the ball away.

Then, with 27:06 to go, the Rangers pounced and went on top.

In transition, the ball came to Piesik, who passed to Skillin, who got a step on a defender and with Raymond coming out to challenge, fired a shot. Raymond was able to get a piece of the ball but not keep it from finding the net and Greely had a 1-0 lead.

“It was just a through ball on the ground,” Piesik said. “We’ve been working on that.”

“I saw the defenders spaced out, so I face-cut and I went in on goal,” said Skillin. “I was just trying to get rid of the ball. It bounced off (the keeper’s) leg, but it went in.”

“A game like this, it’s not always who plays harder, sometimes it’s just who makes the play,” added Andreasen. “Fortunately, Connor hit it and the goalie got a hand on it but he didn’t get enough of it.”

Morrill felt the visitors capitalized on their best opportunity.

“It was a breakdown in the midfield,” Morrill said. “(Connor) made a face-cut in front of our outside back and when that happens and you get the ball to feet, it’s a dangerous spot. Kudos to them for executing it and taking advantage.”

There was still a lot of soccer left to be played, but unlike the teams’ first meeting this fall, which saw Yarmouth dominate after falling behind, this time around, the Rangers continued to pressure.

After Mendelsohn sent a blast just wide, a Piesik rush was broken up at the last second by Wolff, a Mendelsohn one-timer off a throw from Anania forced Raymond to make a diving save and sophomore Gavin Byrne missed high.

At the other end, Greely’s defense stood tall, as Dominski beat Hayner to a cross from senior Mateo Coury, Pierce knocked the ball away from Binda one-on-one and with 1:10 to play, Dominski stopped a solid shot from the side off the foot of senior Will Redfield.

One final Potts clear did the trick and the Rangers were able to run out the clock and celebrate their 1-0 victory.

“It feels good,” said Piesik. “We worked hard. Our defense has been phenomenal all season. This is normal for them.”

“It’s great because we know Yarmouth’s a great team,” Skillin said. “They’ve always been a struggle for us, especially here on turf being a grass team. All the boys are very happy we pulled through. We fought until the last minute. Everyone defended and did their jobs.”

“It’s a good win against a good opponent,” Andreasen added. “They’re still the gold standard, so this is a nice result. I thought we were pretty evenly matched. I thought they slightly outplayed us at our place and I think we slightly outplayed them here tonight. I looked at the clock when we scored. I thought we’d have to just hang on, but we’ve talked about continuing to play hard and we had some decent chances after. We played basically 11 kids in the second half. We hoped they wouldn’t break down or get fatigued. They kept working.”

Greely had a 5-4 edge in shots on frame, got four saves from Dominski and took seven corner kicks to Yarmouth’s three.

The Clippers got four saves from Raymond, but suffered a loss for the first time since last year’s regular season finale.

“It’s disappointing to lose to one of our closest rivals,” said Morrill. “We know these games are always going to be tight. We came out flatter than we thought in the second half. I was trying to get everyone fired up, but the spark never lit. It felt like we were just scrambling.”

Halfway home

Yarmouth looks to bounce back as it stays home to face Fryeburg Academy Thursday. The Clippers then go to Freeport next Tuesday.

“I think the guys will respond well,” said Morrill. “We have to correct the things that didn’t go well and come out and get the next one. There are no shortage of big games to come, so we hope to get right back on track.”

Greely is back in action Thursday at home versus Poland. The Rangers are at Lake Region Monday of next week.

Greely is ranked first in the Class B South Heal Points standings and would love to parlay that into homefield advantage once the playoffs arrive, but there’s still a lot of work to do.

“We just have to keep working hard like we have all season,” Piesik said. “On to the next.”

“Homefield doesn’t matter,” Skillin said. “We just need to get the job done and we can do that anywhere.”

“We’ve played York, Cape and Yarmouth at our place and now we have to make the trip to them,” Andreasen said. “We’ve had really bad luck at York and we’ve not done well at Cape. Our AD, David Shapiro, says, ‘Put your head where your feet are.’ That means every team you face, that’s the one we have to think about. We’ll take these teams as they come along. We’re a veteran club with high expectations. It would be wasteful if we come out after this and don’t have a good performance.”

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net.