SCARBOROUGH – Midway through the second half of Wednesday night’s Class A boys soccer final between top-ranked Scarborough and No. 2 Windham at Scarborough High School, it appeared increasingly obvious that the game was going to come down to one key moment.
The Eagles’ Bryan Soucy supplied that moment.
The senior forward beat Storm goalkeeper Pat Stanton on a direct kick from just outside the penalty area with 7:25 to go in regulation to give the Eagles the 1-0 win and the Class A Western championship.
The Eagles will now play for the Class A state championship against the Eastern champion (which had not been determined as of the Lakes Region Weekly’s press time) on Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m. at Falmouth High School.
The game was a tight one throughout, as both teams had some strong chances in the first half, but neither team could break through and get on the scoreboard. Both Stanton and Windham keeper Dana King came up huge time and time again, with Stanton getting a great leaping save off a Robbie Lentine shot with just under 24 minutes to go before halftime, punching Lentine’s shot just over the crossbar.
With big crowds for both schools urging their teams on, the Eagles and the Red Storm came out in the second half determined to get the win.
It was Windham that got the first big chance.
Just 24 seconds into the half, the Eagles’ Jake Mello unleashed a bullet from about 35 yards out, but Stanton was there to make the diving stop.
The Storm got a solid chance with just under 27 minutes to go as senior Andrew Jones had a good look, but the shot went just wide. Less than a minute later, the Storm’s Charlie Mader got a good look, but his header missed the mark.
The game continued its back-and-forth pace until there was 8:03 to go. The Storm’s Sam Cekada was called for a foul just outside the penalty area, giving the Eagles the direct kick opportunity.
Soucy stepped up to the ball and bent a hard, low shot around the wall of Scarborough defenders and just past the outstretched hand of Stanton to give the Eagles the 1-0 lead.
“I was just trying to get it on goal,” Soucy said. “I was just trying to hit it low, because their goalie’s huge.”
“(It was) a great strike by Bryan,” said Windham coach Colin Minte. “I knew when we got the free kick, it had to be Bryan to hit it. We just wanted to shoot it low and hard on this keeper and luckily for us, it went into the back of the net.”
With time running out, the Storm started to get desperate in an effort to tie the game.
With 4:40 left to go, Scarborough’s Trevor Sparda forced King to make a leaping save to preserve the Eagle lead. Then with less than 10 seconds to go, Scarborough got another solid chance as Jones let a booming shot fly from the corner and King had to fight through traffic in front of the net to make another leaping save.
After the celebration on the field broke up, Soucy said that he thought the Eagles had a tough time at the beginning of the second half, but they were able to get things under control as the game wore on. “I thought in the second half we were struggling, but I think we got it back,” Soucy said. “But it was evenly played most of the game.”
Minte said he was extremely happy with the way his whole team performed. “(It was a) total team effort from top to bottom,” Minte said. “Scarborough’s a great team and most importantly, we didn’t give up any goals, which gave us an opportunity to win the game.”
With one game left to go in the season, Minte said he wanted his team to enjoy their regional title, but not to the point where they lose sight of the ultimate goal, the state championship.
“I’m extremely excited for my guys,” Minte said. “I just hope they don’t enjoy this too much and not focus on Saturday, but we’ll regroup tomorrow and start training hard and preparing for whoever we’re going to face.”
Windham’s Bryan Soucy scored the game-winning goal on a directSend questions/comments to the editors.
