York, Scarborough earn championships

FARMINGDALE – When the York boys soccer team needed some help in the second half of Saturday’s Class B boys state final, it got a lift from an unlikely source.

Chris Lord, a freshman who has seen minimal time this season, assisted on a York goal that deflated Eastern Maine champ Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield and solidified a 2-0 ‘Cats victory at the Melvin C. Simmons Athletic Complex at Hall-Dale High.

In the girls Class B title game, Scarborough dominated in the middle to win its first-ever girls crown with a 2-1 victory over EM champion Ellsworth.

Lord acknowledged some nerves going into the final, but was steady under pressure.

“I saw [the ball] go over my head and I wanted nothing more than to get my head on it, I’d do anything to do it. I just jumped up and hit it over to him.”

Zach Stuppy scored his 14th goal of the season off the header from Lord to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead with 19 minutes, 48 seconds left in the game.

“That second goal was to Chris’ credit as much as Zach put it in the net,” York coach Mike Sullivan said. “Chris went super-hard to the ball and got right in there.”

York shut down MCI strikers Khano Smith and Josh Lambert (23 goals and 12 assists each). The key was a defense that collapsed on Smith whenever he managed to move the ball into the penalty area. At times, Smith had four defenders around him.

Michael Masi, who recorded the first goal 3:41 into the game with a direct kick to the left side of the net, was the primary stopper.

“We knew about their speed and we wanted to respect it, maybe give them a step,” Stuppy said. “We thought if we played our own game of controlling the ball, they couldn’t get it up to them.”

MCI coach Bill Brooks said with his star players heavily marked, another player had to step up on offense.

“We knew they’d be focusing on Khano and Josh and we just had to have someone else make a showing,” Brooks said. “We just got beaten by a better team. They overloaded half of the field and once [Khano] touched it, he had no options.”

Goalie Shaun Souza held up well for the 15-2-1 Huskies, making 13 saves on 28 shots. Daniel Brillon had four saves on nine shots for 15-2-1 York.

In the girls game, No. 1 Ellsworth’s habit of sitting back in the first half and attacking in the second didn’t work against the physical play of WM champ Scarborough, now 10-5-3.

“[We thought we could] come back in the second half and pick ourselves up but [we] just looked a little flat all over and weren’t able to keep up the energy,” Eagles coach Jen Myers said. “A lot of it was emotion and just being here. They’ve been real nervous and excited. [Scarborough] never let down.”

The Redskins had a lot of success crossing the ball into the penalty area – Kristi Cahoon kicked in the game-winner to the far post off a cross from Kristen Frongillo 1:03 into the second half.

“It’s something that we sort of struggled with over the course of the season, but they peaked at the right time and we just kept working at it and working at it,” sixth-year Scarborough coach Heather Labbe said.

The Redskins struck first, with a Maureen McHugh goal off a header from Liz Nisbet at the 28:16 mark.

The Eagles tied it up with 3:52 left in the first half when Becky Lock sent the ball to May Chan, who booted it in from about 20 yards out.

Scarborough defender Erin Floyd marked Lock all game and rendered Ellsworth’s leading scorer (16 goals) ineffective except for the assist.

“I knew she was fast so I tried to contain her and make her go outside so she couldn’t cross it and stay with her,” Floyd said. “We wanted to mark up defensively and step it up offensively.”

Scarborough goalie Laura Schoellkopf stopped three of the 10 shots she faced. Ellsworth ‘keeper Bekah Metzler made nine saves on 23 shots.

The Eagles finish at 13-3-2 in one of the most successful seasons in the program’s history. The regional title was their first since 1982.