Yarmouth junior Ella Caruso tries to get past Greely junior Katherine Clancy during the two-time defending Class B state champion Clippers’ 6-1 victory Saturday night in Cumberland.

CUMBERLAND—Maybe scoring goals isn’t so difficult after all.

Yarmouth’s girls’ soccer team, the two-time defending Class B state champion, wasn’t able to put the ball in the net in its first two contests, but the Clippers discovered the third game to be the charm when they went to rival Greely Saturday evening.

After nearly 186 minutes without a goal this fall, junior Abi Hincks broke the ice for Yarmouth in the 16th minute and the fun was just beginning.

In the 18th minute, sophomore Parker Harnett scored on a breakaway and with 20:27 to go in the half, Harnett scored again, capping a run of three goals in under four minutes, to put the Clippers in command.

Late in the first half, junior Hannah Dwyer added a goal to make it 4-0 at the break.

Yarmouth kept the pressure on to start the second half and Dwyer scored for the second time with 35:43 to play.

Dwyer completed her hat trick with 28:58 on the clock and while junior Katherine Clancy converted for Greely with 26:20 to play, the Clippers went on to a confidence-building 6-1 victory.

Yarmouth improved to 1-2, downed the Rangers for the sixth consecutive time and dropped Greely to 0-3-1 in the process.

“If we hadn’t been creating chances, we’d be more worried, but we did create chances, so we knew, sooner or later, the goals would come,” said Clippers coach Chris Coleman.

Critical early battle

Yarmouth won its second consecutive Class B state title a year in absolutely dominant, undefeated fashion, but the Clippers, with a vastly different look this fall, have struggled early, losing at home to York (1-0) and at Cape Elizabeth (1-0, in double-overtime).

Greely started with a 2-1 home loss to Cape Elizabeth in a playoff rematch, then, after a 2-2 home draw against Freeport, fell, 4-0, at York Thursday.

Entering play Saturday, Greely held a 20-10 (with five ties) advantage since the start of the 2001 season (see sidebar, below), but Yarmouth had won seven of the past nine meetings including both a year ago, 3-0 in Cumberland and 6-1 at home.

This time around, on a 63-degree evening, the Clippers did it again as their offense roared to life.

Yarmouth’s first chance came in the third minute, but junior Adriana Whitlock missed wide.

After Harnett had a low shot saved by Rangers junior goalkeeper Brooke Obar, junior Ehryn Groothoff and freshman Katelyn D’Appolonia also had shots denied.

Then, with 24:14 to play in the first half, after nearly 186 scoreless minutes this fall, the Clippers put the ball in the net.

The ball came to Hincks about 25 yards out, who turned and fired a low shot to the right of Obar and into the goal for a 1-0 lead.

“It was a relief to get that first goal, then it was just excitement,” Dwyer said. “Then, we knew we’d get more.”

Indeed, the floodgates opened.

After Dwyer just missed with Obar out of the goal, Harnett scored for the first time with 22:53 to go before halftime, as she took a pass from junior Audrey Gosseling, got behind the defense, raced in and beat Obar for a 2-0 advantage.

After Dwyer just missed again, Harnett scored for the second time and gave the Clippers their third goal in 3 minutes, 47 seconds.

Gosseling again sent a pass in to Harnett, whose shot was blocked by Obar, but bounced off Harnett toward the goal. Harnett only had to touch it in and just like that, the lead was 3-0 with 20:27 still to play in the half.

After Dwyer was denied by Obar, she finally got in the scoring column with 4:19 on the clock, finishing a long feed from junior Ashlyn Feeley and Yarmouth took a four-goal advantage to halftime.

“When the first (goal) came, that was the monkey off our back and more came in succession,” Coleman said. “We have players in different positions this year and we’ve had to adjust to that.” 

The Clippers enjoyed a 9-1 shots advantage in the first 40 minutes. Obar made five saves, while Yarmouth junior keeper Hope Olson stopped one shot.

In the second half, the visitors continued to push the pedal to the metal.

Just 4:17 in, Groothoff passed ahead to Dwyer, who raced in and beat new Rangers goalie, junior Paige Evans, to make it 5-0.

The Clippers’ final goal, Dwyer’s hat trick tally, was registered with 28:58 on the clock. Whitlock got her the ball and Dwyer broke free, faked a defender, then fired the ball into the goal for a 6-0 advantage.

“My teammates got me the ball,” Dwyer said. “Even if I didn’t score, someone else would have been there.”

“Hannah has stepped up,” said Coleman. “She has so much potential. She works extremely hard. We knew it would come for her. She’s played out wide a little bit the past two games to try and give us natural width, but we put it down the middle tonight and she had three goals. Credit to her. Well deserved.”

To its credit, Greely played hard until the end and was rewarded with a goal.

After junior Sawyer Dusch headed a shot wide, off a corner kick, senior Skylar Cooney served the ball in front where Clancy headed it past Yarmouth senior goalkeeper Caitlin Hewitt.

The Rangers hoped to draw closer, but Hewitt broke up a Clancy rush, Dusch had a shot blocked, Cooney just missed and Obar sent a shot just wide as the Clippers closed out their 6-1 victory, which ties an identical win last fall as their most decisive over Greely this century.

“It feels so good,” Dwyer said. “We’ve won states the past two years, then we lost 12 girls. We just needed to connect as a team. Yesterday’s practice helped. We just worked on attacking. We’ve been at a loss with the final third.”

Yarmouth had a 15-4 shots advantage and got two saves from Hewitt and one from Olson.

The Rangers had a 6-2 edge in corner kicks and got five saves from Obar and four from Evans.

“We don’t have any excuses, they just played a lot better than we did today,” said Greely coach Josh Muscadin. “It’s part of life. We’ll learn and see them next time. I had some different people in different spots. It’s good I could see what we have.”

Turnaround

Greely seeks its elusive first victory when it hosts Poland Tuesday. The Rangers then travel to Fryeburg Academy Friday.

“Every team has improved and we’re not as strong as we used to be, so we can’t take anything for granted.,” Muscadin said. “We’ll have to go out and perform.”

Yarmouth hopes to even its record Tuesday at Freeport.

“Hopefully this gets us going,” said Dwyer. “We’ll try to start a winning streak after this game. We still have a lot of talent. We’re a small team, so there isn’t depth in numbers, but there is depth in skill.”

“Could we win the next five, 10 games? absolutely, but if we don’t, it’s not the end of the world,” Coleman said. “You don’t have to be 18-0 to be a state champion. We have to take each game as it comes. We could be 3-0, but we’re 1-2. We’ll prepare for Freeport next.”

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.

Recent Greely-Yarmouth results

2017
Yarmouth 3 @ Greely 0
@ Yarmouth 6 Greely 1

2016
Yarmouth 4 @ Greely 1 
@ Yarmouth 1 Greely 0
Class B South Final
@ Yarmouth 3 Greely 1

2015
@ Greely 6 Yarmouth 3 
@ Yarmouth 2 Greely 1
Class B South semifinal
@ Greely 2 Yarmouth 1 

2014
Greely 2 @ Yarmouth 0
Yarmouth 2 @ Greely 0

2013
@ Greely 3 Yarmouth 0
@ Yarmouth 1 Greely 0

2012
Greely 2 @ Yarmouth 1
@ Greely 3 Yarmouth 0

2011
Greely 2 @ Yarmouth 1
@ Greely 5 Yarmouth 1

2010
@ Yarmouth 2 Greely 1 (OT)
@ Greely 1 Yarmouth 0

2009
Greely 2 @ Yarmouth 0
@ Greely 2 Yarmouth 0

2008
Greely 3 @ Yarmouth 1
@ Greely 1 Yarmouth 0 (OT)

2007
@ Greely 4 Yarmouth 0
@ Yarmouth 2 Greely 2 (tie)

2006
@ Yarmouth 2 Greely 0
@ Greely 1 Yarmouth 1 (tie)

2005
@ Greely 2 Yarmouth 2 (tie)
Greely 2 @ Yarmouth 1

2004
Greely 3 @ Yarmouth 2
@ Greely 1 Yarmouth 1 (tie)

2003
@ Greely 4 Yarmouth 2
@ Yarmouth 0 Greely 0 (tie)

2002
Greely 3 @ Yarmouth 1

2001
@ Greely 2 Yarmouth 0
Greely 5 @ Yarmouth 1