FALMOUTH — After the first few practices of the season, Colin Minte turned to his assistant coaches on the Windham High boys’ soccer team and noted that he thought the Eagles would have a pretty good squad.
This being his first year in Western Class A, he wasn’t sure how good.
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Well, Saturday night he found out. Windham won the school’s first Class A soccer championship, beating Messalonskee 3-1 before a crowd of about 2,500 at Falmouth High.
Marc Reynolds scored two goals — the first and last for Windham — and Robbie Lentine had a goal and an assist.
“I’m so excited for my guys,” said Minte. “They set the goal of winning the school’s first state championship. This is a tremendous accomplishment. It’s just real rewarding for these guys. I know all the effort they put in to get here.”
Windham (16-2) controlled the tempo and play in the first half to take a 2-0 lead on goals by Reynolds with 27:04 remaining and Lentine with 7:04 left.
Brian Soucy set up both with expertly placed crosses from the right side. On the first goal, Lentine leaped over a couple defenders and headed the ball back to Reynolds, who was uncovered to the right. On the second goal, Lentine simply headed the ball inside the left post.
“Me and Brian always work well together,” said Lentine. “We work on (crosses) in practice all the time. But Brian is great putting the ball where it needs to be. He makes it easy for me.”
Messalonskee, which came out of the East as the sixth seed and finished 13-3-2, made a run at Windham in the second half. But Windham keeper Dana King made several saves to keep his team ahead.
When Messalonskee finally scored with 20:55 remaining on a drive by Oleksandr Shatskov from the top of the box — a shot that just eluded the dive of King — King was determined not to let another one in.
“We were confident,” he said. “They scored that goal and we didn’t put our head down.”
Instead, Windham pushed forward, getting a couple great chances that went just wide. And then Reynolds scored again.
Situated at the left side of the net, he got a pass from Devin Pelletier and headed the ball back across the goal as Messalonskee keeper Zach Sutherland moved to his right. That made it 3-1 with 15:33 remaining.
“I was calling for it and he passed it at my feet,” said Reynolds. “I was going hard and the goalie was going one way so I had to go the other.”
Even then, King had to smother a couple close-in chances by Messalonskee to keep the margin at two.
“Our guys kept battling back,” said Messalonskee Coach Tom Sheridan. “I think it’s just been fantastic, the run we’ve been on. It’s been a tremendous year, unfortunately a bittersweet ending.”
Sheridan said King was the difference. “He snuffed out a couple of chances we had there,” he said.
And that allowed Windham to hold on for the championship.
“This is crazy,” said King. “It really hasn’t settled in yet.
“But we’re making history at Windham High School.”
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at: mlowe@pressherald.com
Twitter: MikeLowePPH
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