Nobody saw this one coming.
No one outside of Brunswick, anyway.
Saturday afternoon at Fitzpatrick Stadium, the fourth-seeded Dragons were expected to play a supporting role as No. 2 Yarmouth earned a third consecutive Class B state championship.
But Brunswick had other ideas, and captured an improbable crown of its own.
Despite falling behind by three goals in the first quarter, the Dragons clawed back and went ahead to stay in late in the second half on Jonas McGrath’s first goal of the season. Brunswick then held on, thanks to two huge saves from Jake Reeves, to win the title, 14-13.
The Dragons (12-4), who lost by 12 goals to Yarmouth in the regular season, won Class B for the first time since 2018 and captured their fifth state championship overall.
“This past week, when we beat (Messalonskee in the semifinals), we played well and I knew we had more in the tank,” said Brunswick Coach Jason Miller. “I knew it would be tight, but I thought we could do it.”
Yarmouth (13-3) came out strong and threatened to open up a big lead when Cam Miller, Sawyer Flowerdew and Peter Psyhogeos scored early goals. But Brunswick responded and, behind goals from Zach Stern-Hayes and Max Rudgers, trailed just 4-2 after one quarter.
Rudgers then forged a 4-4 tie early in the second quarter before the Clippers went back on top, getting goals from Aksel Yeo and Ben Moll. The Dragons answered with the final three goals of the half, as Thomas Labbe sandwiched goals around one from Nick Marro for a surprising 7-6 advantage at the break.
The Dragons never trailed in the second half. Yarmouth drew even at 7-7 and 8-8 in the third quarter, then tied it at 11-11 and 13-13 in the fourth, both on goals from Psyhogeos.
But with 1:23 left, Marro spotted a wide-open McGrath on the back side and McGrath beat Clippers goalie Eddie Kim (13 saves) for the winning goal.
“I saw no one was looking at me, so I snuck around back side, caught the pass, faked it once, shot and scored,” McGrath said.
Reeves denied Steve Fulton and Colter Olson in the waning seconds, and the Dragons completed the upset.
“It was very stressful at the end,” said Reeves. “When the game ended, it was pure happiness.”
Labbe led all scorers with five goals, while Marro and Rudgers each added four. Reeves made a dozen saves.
The Clippers had three goals from Psyhogeos and two each from Flowerdew, Fulton and Ben Moll.
“The boys worked hard all the way through,” said Yarmouth Coach Jon Miller. “Championship games are different from regular-season games and it showed today.”
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