Josh Dorr had already saved the Brunswick High boys’ lacrosse from defeat in Saturday night’s Class A state championship game, scoring a tying goal with 10 seconds left in regulation.
Then in overtime – where the first goal wins – he saw the chance he needed. A Scarborough defender turned his head to take a peek at Aiden Glover, who had the ball behind the net manned by Dominic Joy.
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“When I saw the back of his head I just made a mad dash and luckily put it in past that great (goalkeeper),” Dorr said. “That keep almost made that save. I think it hit some pipe, maybe his back, maybe his stick but the refs luckily saw that it hit the net.”
Dorr’s goal with 2:47 left in the four-minute overtime gave Brunswick an 18-17 win, set off a mad-dash celebration, completed the Dragons’ perfect 16-0 season and dethroned Scarborough (12-3), which had beaten Brunswick 18-10 in last season’s final.
Brunswick was appearing in its fourth straight title game, having lost to South Portland in 2014 and before beating South Portland in 2015.
“I just didn’t want to go home on that bus with a loss again,” Dorr said. “I’ve done it twice on this field and as a senior group we didn’t want to go down. We couldn’t let that happen.”
Dorr’s winning goal produced the fifth lead change in a game that also saw eight ties.
“We knew this was going to be a fast-break basketball game with high scoring and the ebbs and flows of two and three goals,” said Brunswick Coach Don Glover, who shared the win with his three sons, assistant coach Cam, senior defender Christian and Aiden, a sophomore attack.
Scarborough rallied from a three-goal deficit in the fourth quarter to take the lead with 1:46 remaining on Sam Neugebauer’s sixth goal, only to have Dorr tie it again when he curled around the net and beat Joy with a quick shot.
Dorr scored five goals and added two assists. Aiden Glover had four goals and two assists and Christian Glover and Max Gramins each scored three goals.
Andrew Eno (two goals) and Henry Doherty (goal) also contributed.
Christian Jensen won 26 of the 38 faceoffs for Brunswick. Like several of the 13 Brunswick seniors, Jensen was on the Dragons’ undefeated championship football team in the fall.
“Playing football was just an awesome feeling and we just really wanted one more,” Jensen said. “We had a great season and we have an awesome senior class, so we really wanted to go out on a win.”
Despite Jensen’s ability to gain possession, Scarborough led 5-3 after a quarter and 10-8 at the half with eight of the goals coming from its attack trio of Neugebauer, Marc Guerette (five goals) and Marco Manfra (three goals, two assists).
The Dragons dominated the third quarter, scoring all five goals to take a 13-10 lead. Aiden Glover and Dorr each scored twice and Gramins had one as the Dragons found open shooting space. Five key saves from Joy (17 for the game) kept the lead from being larger.
Guerette’s third goal in the fourth quarter tied the game 16-16 with 2:14 left. Red Storm faceoff man Nick Quartararo, who battled Jensen relentlessly, won the next faceoff to set up Neugebauer’s go-ahead goal.
“Really all you can ever do is put yourself in a position to have a chance and we sure did that,” said retiring Scarborough Coach Joe Hezlep.
In 10 seasons at Scarborough, Hezlep, 35, won six state championships (2008, 2010-13 and 2016).
Hezlep told his team he was retiring after the final regular-season game. A former president of the Maine Youth Lacrosse Association, Hezlep is the director of operations for a growing Portland real estate company. He plans to continue to coach lacrosse at the club level and be an assistant football coach.
Steve Craig can be reached at 791-6413 or:
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