Yarmouth’s Eric LaBrie was set up for many scoring opportunities in the Class B boys’ soccer state championship game Saturday afternoon at Deering High. On the biggest play of the game, however, he set up a teammate.
LaBrie made a short pass to Jack Jones, who scored the winning goal with 14:10 left in the second half as the Clippers beat Winslow 2-1 to win their fourth straight state championship.
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“It was a fabulous play by Eric as he played the ball through and passed it to me,” said Jones. “I had a pretty easy goal to score. Really, it was my teammates setting me up.”
The state title is the 12th overall for Yarmouth (18-0), which moves them ahead of Falmouth for the most in Maine boys’ soccer history.
North champion Winslow ends the season 15-4.
On the winning goal, LaBrie got the ball at the left side of the box on a short pass from the left wing. As Winslow goalie Jake Lapierre and a couple defenders moved in to defend, LaBrie slipped a pass to the middle to Jones, who scored into an open net from 10 yards out for his eighth goal of the season.
Yarmouth Coach Mike Hagerty, who won his ninth title in his 21st season as Yarmouth coach, knew from three scouting trips to see Winslow that the Black Raiders strength was up the middle.
So having the winning goal start out wide went according to his game plan.
“Eric is really is just so much to contend with,” said Hagerty. “Jack, Max (Coury) and Taj (Garvey) do a nice job when Eric collects two or three defenders by finding open gaps and thankfully he got it to Jack.
“We made a bit of a change in the second half and I thought we played cleaner and pushed the ball out wide more.”
The Clippers pushed their winning streak to 24 games and is unbeaten in 31 straight.
Yarmouth took a 1-0 lead with 12:31 left in the first half. LaBrie dribbled toward the middle of the field and scored his 26th goal of the season off his own rebound, after an initial save by Lapierre (19 saves).
Winslow came close to tying it less than a minute later when Jack Morneault clanged a shot off the post from 10 yards out.
The Black Raiders – who lost to the Clippers 5-2 in last year’s final – tied it with 9:07 left in the half when Michael Wildes curled in a free kick to the near post from 35 yards out.
After a even first half, Yarmouth controlled most of the final 40 minutes with a 16-1 shot advantage and a 5-1 edge in corner kicks.
“I thought we play better in the first half (compared to the second),” Winslow Coach Aaron Wolfe said. “We had that one good chance off the post. Against a good team you got to (convert) those breaks.
“In the second half they just wore us down. What makes (Yarmouth) so good is they’ve got skill but also got depth. We don’t quite have the numbers that they have and (I think) that played a role as the game wore on.”
Coury appeared to give the Clippers the lead in the 67th minute when his shot off a rebound of a free kick by LaBrie was saved by Winslow defender Max Spaulding, who came across the goal line.
Hagerty said he team is comfortable in close games because assistant coaches Matt Morrill and Justin Morrill have both scored in one-goal games in state championships and parlay those stories to the team.
“We’ve been in five other one-goal games this year,” he said. “For us, we don’t get nervous. We’ve been in this position before – in the playoffs and certainly state championships.”
Yarmouth’s Cal Owen made two saves, both in the first half.
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