Windjammers sail by Warriors for title

CAMDEN – From afar, they kept tabs on one another: reading, hearing, watching what the other was doing.

Way up north, the Fort Kent Warriors, sitting atop the Heal Point Standings, heard the footsteps of the Camden-Rockport Windjammers, 250 miles away, closing in. In the last game of the regular season, the defending Eastern Maine Class B champion Windjammers caught – and passed – Fort Kent, securing the No. 1 seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

In the mud and muck of the Camden-Rockport soccer field here Saturday afternoon, the two clashed with the EM Class B title on the line. Cam-Rock 2, Fort Kent 0; the Windjammers were champions again.

Camden-Rockport, 16-0-1, will face Western Maine winner Yarmouth for the state title next Saturday at a site to be determined. Fort Kent, the second seed, closes out its season 13-1-2.

Senior striker Eben Sepe scored one goal and was on the giving end of a nifty pass which Jason Peasley turned into a one-on-one breakaway goal to account for the game’s scoring.

According to all involved, though, a key in the outcome of this EM finale was the home field advantage.

“Home field advantage is why you work hard all season long,” said Fort Kent Coach Dave Minzy, who once terrorized the C-R program while a player at Georges Valley in nearby Thomaston. “I think the edge on the home field and the field conditions were enough to sway the game.”

“We’re a real good team in mud and our field has been muddy a lot this year,” said C-R fullback Jake Hoff. “We’re just used to it. That gave us a bit of an advantage.”

The ‘Jammers opened the scoring when Kris Welt began a run down the left sideline finding Sepe open in the midfield area. Sepe, in turn, got the ball to Peasley who found himself one-on-one against FK goalkeeper Shawn St. Peter.

As St. Peter came out of the goalmouth and Peasley closed in, the ball pinballed between players before squirting away just enough for Peasley to loft a shot into the open net with 16:05 left in the first half.

“When you get that first goal, it takes off some of the pressure, but it also gives you more energy,” said Hoff. “One goal is never enough. That’s something we focus on. We just try to keep pushing it.”

The Warriors’ biggest run of the entire game came minutes later when a Chuck Michaud shot rebounded off C-R ‘keeper Jay Lavoie toward the open side of the net.

Before an FK player could get a foot on the ball, however, Windjammer fullback Pat Killoran booted the ball clear of the goalmouth, ending the threat.

In the second half, the Windjammers got their second goal – which played a big role in sealing the Warriors’ fate.

Once again it was Welt, dribbling down the left sideline, who found Sepe in the middle of the 18-yard area. Sepe deked one player and closed in on goal, beating St. Peter from 10 yards away with 29:44 left in the contest.

The Warriors never recovered.

“In spite of the wet conditions, we had some real good runs,” said C-R Coach Don Palmer. “We just played solid and didn’t make the mistakes that you can sometimes make on a field like this.”

The Warriors refused to offer the sloppy field conditions as an excuse for the loss.

“The field was muddy but we had our chances to back down and play on a different date. But, we stuck to it,” said Fort Kent striker Adrien Marquis. “Camden played a great game. It was nobody’s fault (we lost). Overall, both of us played a good game. I think they deserved it.”

Lavoie had a relatively easy day in the net, stopping five of Fort Kent’s nine shots.

St. Peter, who made some outstanding stops to keep the game as close as it was, stopped 15 of the 21 shots for the Warriors.