YARMOUTH — The Yarmouth boys soccer team has yet to allow a goal through six games this season, but as Kennebunk head coach Bruce Peloquin pointed out after his team was the latest to be shut out by the Clippers, “they play defense by playing offense.”

That offense proved tough to defend for the Rams, especially during a sequence at the end of the half that saw the Clippers score four goals in the final eight minutes to run away with an 8-0 victory in a WMC clash Monday night.

Both teams entered the game as two of the best in the Western Maine Conference, with just one loss between them. Even Yarmouth head coach Mike Hagerty was surprised with the final result.

“The score is not indicative of the difference between the teams at all. They’ve got a lot of talented kids,” Hagerty said of Kennebunk. “We just put together an eightminute stretch there that was pretty good.”

Yarmouth (6-0) got on the board early, scoring nine minutes in on a Matt Dostie goal from Christopher Pidden. The shots kept coming from the Clippers, but Kennebunk (3-2-1) goalie Sean Berry turned all of them away for the next 20 minutes.

That only lasted so long, however, and the suffocating Yarmouth attack finally broke through with 7:41 left before halftime. Patrick Grant scored from Henry Coolidge, Luke Groothoff converted just over three minutes later, Dostie followed with his second 2:28 after that, and Coolidge finished off the scoring spree with an assist from Jonathan Groothoff with 1:15 left in the half.

“They are very well-coached, very, very quick, very, very skilled, and they got us running around,” said Peloquin. “ You can only defend so much of the field, and the quicker the team is the less you can defend, so you have to decide what you want to defend. And I think in our overexuberance (we) tried to defend the whole field.”

The Rams were able to push the ball into the box on the opening touch of the second half but weren’t able to get a shot off against Yarmouth goalie Cal Owen. Between Owen and backup goalie Noah Grondin the Clippers didn’t need to make a save in the game.

“I think it’s because of how well they possess and how quickly they move the ball around. It certainly didn’t allow us to move the ball around, didn’t allow us to possess,” said Peloquin. “They possess the ball and you can’t score when they have the ball on their foot.”

Hagerty said his back line that starts three seniors is a big reason for the season opening shutout streak.

He also has a senior up front who helps make the offense click. On Monday, that was Grant. The veteran midfielder played the ball into the right corner twice in a four-minute stretch early in the second half and fed goals to Dostie and Jonathan Groothoff.

Hagerty said it was the third different position Grant played in the game, having started on the left side before scoring his goal from a central attacking spot.

“Every time he went somewhere good things happened,” said Hagerty.

Pidden closed out the scoring on a penalty kick with just over 13 minutes to play.

The Clippers attempted 27 shots, including 18 on goal.

Peloquin said despite that total that he thought Berry had a strong game in goal for his team.

“It’s tough to say to a keeper after having eight goals scored ‘you had a really good game,’ but he had a really good game. The goals that were scored, they were more breakdowns defensively or just their quickness overwhelming us,” said Peloquin. “He played as well as you could expect for a goalie who had eight goals on him. It certainly wasn’t because of him.”

The teams will meet again Oct. 8 in Yarmouth. Peloquin said he expects his team to be competitive every time it steps on the field. Hagerty said he expects just that in the rematch.

“It’ll be a much closer game when we’re down at Kennebunk,” said Hagerty.

— Sports Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or sports@journaltribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.

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