BOX SCORE

Yarmouth 16 North Yarmouth Academy 10

NYA- 1 2 3 4- 10
Y- 5 3 4 4- 16

First period
8:50 Y Psyhogeos (unassisted)
8:15 Y Psyhogeos (unassisted)
7:51 Y Miller (unassisted)
5:38 Y Fulton (unassisted)
4:43 NYA Warde (Waterman)
2:47 Y Fulton (unassisted)

Second period
11:30 Y Marsh (Yeo) (MAN-UP)
5:46 NYA Waterman (Thomas)
4:08 Y Marsh (Yeo) (MAN-UP)
3:53 NYA Waterman (unassisted)
2:03 Y Olson (Psyhogeos)

Third period
11:00 Y Fulton (unassisted)
10:28 NYA Waterman (unassisted)
7:55 Y Fulton (unassisted)
5:29 NYA Waterman (unassisted)
3:13 Y Fulton (Psyhogeos)
2:54 NYA Hamblett (unassisted)
5.2 Y Fulton (unassisted) (MAN-UP)

Fourth period
11:37 NYA Warde (unassisted)
10:55 Y Psyhogeos (unassisted)
9:53 NYA Donnelly (Oney)
8:04 Y Fulton (Psyhogeos) (MAN-UP)
7:58 NYA Warde (Thomas)
2:18 Y Olson (Fulton)
2:00 NYA Rohde (unassisted)
54.8 Y Fulton (unassisted)

Goals:
NYA- Waterman 4, Warde 3, Donnelly, Hamblett, Rohde 1
Y- Fulton 8, Psyhogeos 3, Marsh, Olson 2, Miller 1

Assists:
NYA- Thomas 2, Oney, Waterman 1
Y- Pyshogeos 3, Yeo 2, Fulton 1

Faceoffs (NYA, 16-11)
NYA- Thomas 11 of 19, Donnelly 5 of 8
Y- Dauphinee 8 of 14, McGonagle 2 of 10, St. Perre 1 of 3

Ground balls:
NYA- 41
Y- 38

Turnovers:
NYA- 28
Y- 20

Shots:
NYA- 29
Y- 58

Shots on cage:
NYA- 17
Y- 32

Saves:
NYA (Curtis) 16
Y (Kim) 7

YARMOUTH—Yarmouth’s boys’ lacrosse team has relied on its offense to win games this spring.

And it makes sense.

Because that offense is pretty impressive.

Wednesday evening, the two-time reigning Class B state champion Clippers hosted crosstown rival North Yarmouth Academy and it was senior Steven Fulton’s turn to shine, as Fulton produced a career high in goals scored and Yarmouth continued to surge.

The Clippers shot to a 5-1 lead after one period behind two goals apiece from Fulton and senior Peter Psyhogeos, but the Panthers refused to roll over and thanks to two goals from junior Caleb Waterman, stayed within five, 8-3, at the half.

Fulton then scored all four of his team’s goals in the third quarter, as Yarmouth stretched its lead to 12-6 and the Clippers would go on to a 16-10 victory.

Fulton led the way with a whopping eight goals as Yarmouth won its seventh consecutive game, closed the regular season 10-2 and in the process, ended NYA’s regular campaign at 9-3.

“Our offense’s chemistry is just great right now,” said Clippers coach Jon Miller. “They’re creating on their own, they’re executing their shots. We’re leaning on our offense for good reason.”

Playoff tune-up

NYA and Yarmouth have each positioned themselves to make a run at their respective state championships.

The Clippers have gradually evolved into a powerhouse as the season progressed. Yarmouth began with a 15-2 home win over Gray-New Gloucester/Poland, then lost at home to reigning Class A state champion Cape Elizabeth (14-5). After downing host Greely (10-5) and Brunswick (20-8), the Clippers lost a shootout down in York, 15-12, but they haven’t fallen since, defeating visiting Messalonskee (15-9), shocking host Cape Elizabeth (18-16) and handling host Freeport (17-4) and visiting Fryeburg Academy (22-4), before eking out a thrilling 12-11 overtime win at reigning Class C champion Waynflete last Monday. In its most recent outing, Yarmouth handled visiting Greely, 18-4.

As for the Panthers, they started with a 7-4 home win over Waynflete, then downed visiting Traip Academy (17-0), host Gray-New Gloucester/Poland (13-3), visiting Gardiner (18-5) and host Wells (5-3) before falling from the unbeaten ranks with a 14-6 home loss to York. The Panthers were then stunned by visiting Freeport (9-8, in overtime) before bouncing back to knock off host Greely (8-2), visiting Lake Region (14-1), host Oak Hill in an overtime thriller (12-11) and host Freeport (9-2).

In last year’s meeting, Yarmouth squeaked out an 8-7 win at NYA, making it 15 straight victories over its one-time fierce crosstown rival.

Wednesday, NYA sought is first win over Yarmouth since an 8-7 upset in the 2012 Eastern B Final, but the Clippers, who honored their seniors prior to the game, struck early and never looked back.

Panthers junior goalie Jack Curtis stymied the home team initially, as he saved a shot from Psyhogeos, then forced Psyhogeos into a tough angle on a shot which hit the post, but with 8:50 to go in the opening stanza, Psyhogeos scored unassisted to break the ice.

Psyhogeos struck again unassisted 35 seconds later and with 7:51 left in the frame, standout senior defenseman Cam Miller managed to swat a shot past Curtis like a hockey player tickling the twine, which fittingly, Miller is, and the lead was quickly 3-0.

After NYA’s first shot, from junior Wyatt Thomas, was turned aside by Yarmouth sophomore goalie Eddie Kim, Fulton scored for the first time, unassisted, after a turnover, with 5:38 on the clock.

That forced Panthers coach Peter Gerrity to call timeout and his team would respond, as Waterman fed junior Brayden Warde for a goal with 4:43 to go.

Fulton would answer two minutes later, again unassisted, and the Clippers took a 5-1 advantage to the second quarter.

When junior Killan Marsh scored man-up from junior Aksel Yeo 30 seconds into the period, Yarmouth appeared primed to run away and hide, but to its credit, NYA settled in and hung tough.

After Kim denied junior Jonah Donnelly, Waterman scored his first goal, from Thomas, with 5:46 on the first half clock.

The Yeo-to-Marsh man-up connection worked again with 4:08 to go, but after Kim robbed Warde, Waterman scored unassisted with 3:53 remaining.

The Clippers then retook momentum, as after Kim denied sophomore Nicholas Pelletier, Psyhogeos set up sophomore Colter Olson for an 8-3 lead, which Yarmouth took the break.

In the first 24 minutes, the Clippers had a commanding 32-14 edge in shots, but six Curtis saves kept the Panthers within hailing distance.

Fulton, who didn’t score in the second period, then flipped the switch in the third quarter.

A minute into the second half, Fulton scored unassisted.

Waterman countered 32 seconds later, but after Kim denied a Thomas bid to pull NYA closer, Fulton scored unassisted with 7:55 on the clock for a 10-4 lead.

Waterman answered with an unassisted goal on a long shot with 5:29 to play in the frame, but Psyhogeos set up Fulton for a goal with 3:13 left and after Pelletier answered unassisted 19 seconds later, Fulton scored a man-up goal, unassisted, with 5.2 seconds showing and Yarmouth had a relatively comfortable 12-6 advantage heading for the final stanza.

There, Warde scored unassisted 23 seconds in, but with 10:55 to go, Psyhogeos scored unassisted to restore the six-goal advantage.

With 9:53 to play, Donnelly finished a feed from senior Elliott Oney, but again the Clippers answered man-up, as Fulton took a pass from Psyhogeos and beat Curtis for his seventh goal, making it 14-8 with 8:04 left.

A mere six seconds later, after Thomas won the faceoff, he set up Warde for a goal, but the Panthers again couldn’t score consecutive goals, as Fulton set up Olson for a man-up goal with 2:18 to play.

Senior Chas Rohde scored NYA’s final goal with 2 minutes to go, but with 54.8 seconds showing, Fulton scored unassisted, his eighth of the game, and Yarmouth went on to a 16-10 victory.

“It’s always battle against them,” said Fulton. “NYA always puts up a good fight. It’s good to have a game like this going into playoffs. We’ve had a tough schedule and we’ve played in some really tight games. We’ve grown a lot from those games. Our defense has been really solid this whole year and our offense has started to click.”

“It was a fight to the end,” Jon Miller said. “They changed their defense, which was effective, then they scored in transition.”

Not only did Fulton score eight times, he also had an assist.

“We executed our offense,” said Fulton. “We’ve worked on tweaking some things on the offensive side and my teammates put me in a lot of easy positions to score tonight. Pete and Killian, our whole attack, draws a lot of attention and that definitely freed me up a lot today. We moved the ball around and got the defense spread out and got the job done.”

“(Steven) was joking last practice that he was in a drought, even though he wasn’t, so he was feeling hungry today,” Jon Miller said. “He’s so dominant. I think he’s kind of under-the-radar, underrated. I think he’s one of the best middies Yarmouth’s had in a long time.”

Psyhogeos added three goals and three assists, Marsh and Olson each scored twice and Cam Miller had a goal as well.

“Eight guys can win one-on-ones and score,” said Jon Miller. “We have that many effective offensive players at least. If we’re getting doubled, we have to make simple passes and someone else will do it.”

Yeo had two assists.

Kim finished with seven saves.

Cam Miller had a game-high seven ground balls, while Marsh added five.

The Clippers enjoyed a 58-29 shots advantage (32-17 on cage) and overcame 20 turnovers.

For NYA, Waterman had four goals and an assist, Warde added three goals, while Donnelly, Pelletier and Rohde each finished with one.

Thomas had two assists and Oney tallied one as well.

Curtis made 16 saves.

The Panthers had a 16-11 advantage in faceoffs, a 41-38 edge in ground balls (Oney, Thomas and senior Henry Bergeron all scooped up five) and committed 28 costly turnovers.

“We’re trying to put together four quarters in a game and I’m not sure we’ve done that yet,” said Gerrity. “We have our moments. We can score a lot fast, but don’t do it consistently. (Yarmouth’s) very good. They’ve got threats everywhere. It’s always fun to play them, to come over here and walk through the woods. We felt like we had a good chance this year. We did play pretty well, but we went down, 5-1, and that’s a big hole against a really good team. We would have had to play out of our minds to climb out of that.

“We feel like we won the games we needed to. The first Freeport game stung, but we avenged that one. We’re ready to go.”

Title time

NYA projects to be the top seed in Class C and will have a bye into the state quarterfinals, which will be held at the end of next week. The Panthers are seeking to win their first title in three years and will begin postseason play the end of next week.

“Now that this game is over, we’re looking to the postseason,” said Gerrity. “Being at home is big for us. Class C has quite a few good teams. We only beat by Wells by two goals and Freeport beat us. Waynflete’s six. One through six, there’s a lot of good teams. We have a handful of guys who were here in 2019, but everyone’s still kind of learning.”

Yarmouth hopes to hold off York for the all-important second seed in Class B and was ranked second at press time. The Clippers will host a state preliminary round contest, against a foe to be determined, sometime late next week.

“I think we have what it takes,” said Fulton. “From this point on, if we lose we’re out, so we have to continue to execute. We have a lot of winners on this team. The goal is a championship and everyone understands that. We’ll work hard and we’ll be ready for the playoffs.”

“Homefield would be great,” Jon Miller said. “We have to practice some different schemes, but I think we’re ready. We have over a week until our first playoff game, so we have to keep the energy and the hunger. It’ll be a fun tournament. These seniors, if it wasn’t for COVID, could be going for four in a row. They’re going for a lot and they know it too.”

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

Recent Yarmouth-NYA meetings

2021
Yarmouth 8 @ NYA 7

2019
Yarmouth 16 @ NYA 2

2018
@ Yarmouth 14 NYA 2

2017
@ Yarmouth 15 NYA 6

2016
Yarmouth 12 @ NYA 5
@ Yarmouth 13 NYA 4
Class B North quarterfinal
@ Yarmouth 19 NYA 4

2015
@ Yarmouth 14 NYA 3
Yarmouth 8 @ NYA 3
Eastern B Final
@ Yarmouth 10 NYA 4

2014
Yarmouth 10 @ NYA 0
@ Yarmouth 4 NYA 2

2013
Yarmouth 7 @ NYA 6
@ Yarmouth 11 NYA 6
Eastern B semifinals
Yarmouth 8 @ NYA 7

2012
@ Yarmouth 11 NYA 9
@ NYA 8 Yarmouth 6
Eastern B Final
NYA 8 @ Yarmouth 7

2011
Yarmouth 6 @ NYA 2
NYA 9 @ Yarmouth 2

2010
@ Yarmouth 11 NYA 4
Yarmouth 19 @ NYA 1
Eastern B semifinals
@ Yarmouth 17 NYA 7

2008
@ Yarmouth 16 NYA 6
@ NYA 6 Yarmouth 5 (OT)
Eastern B Final
@ Yarmouth 12 NYA 7

2007
@ Yarmouth 12 NYA 11
@ NYA 9 Yarmouth 6
Eastern B Final
@ NYA 10 Yarmouth 9

2006
@ Yarmouth 8 NYA 4
@ NYA 7 Yarmouth 6 (OT)
Eastern B Final
@ Yarmouth 9 NYA 3

2005
@ Yarmouth 15 NYA 2
Yarmouth 14 @ NYA 4
East Region Final
@ Yarmouth 10 NYA 0

2004
@ Yarmouth 12 NYA 8
Yarmouth 19 @ NYA 8
East Region semifinals
@ Yarmouth 11 NYA 3

2003
Yarmouth 12 @ NYA 10
@ Yarmouth 8 NYA 6
East Region Final
@ Yarmouth 9 NYA 8

2002
@ Yarmouth 11 NYA 9
Southeast Division quarterfinals
@ Yarmouth 10 NYA 5

2001
NYA 12 Yarmouth 4
North Division semifinals
@ NYA 15 Yarmouth 6

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