All four Eastern Maine representatives to this year’s girls state championship soccer games are familiar faces. Brunswick, Winslow and George Stevens are making their third state appearances since 2000, the Dragons in Class A, the Black Raiders in Class B and the Eagles in Class C.
Only one will have a chance to defend a state championship.
Lee Academy will try to hang on to its Class D title when the Pandas go up against Western Maine representative Waynflete of Portland.
The Pandas again will face the Flyers as the state championships are decided Saturday at four locations around the state. The girls games will all be played at 10 a.m.
Lee and Waynflete will play at the Weatherbee School Complex’s artificial turf field in Hampden.
The Eagles of Blue Hill will face North Yarmouth Academy for the Class C title at Schenck High School’s Ron Marks Field in East Millinocket.
The Class B state final between Winslow and Gorham will be held on the artificial surface at the MBNA-owned Point Lookout field in Lincolnville, while Class A Brunswick will face Greely of Cumberland Center at Morse High’s McMann Field Complex in Bath.
Waynflete, which fell to Lee 4-0 last year, has scored 11 goals and given up one in two postseason games (the top-ranked teams in Western Maine Class D get byes to the semifinals because of the small amount of squads in that classification). Kim Ortengren has four goals so far in the playoffs.
The Flyers went 9-2-1 in the regular season. Their two losses were to Class C teams St. Dominic of Auburn and NYA. Waynflete tied NYA earlier in the season.
North Yarmouth, which beat Houlton 1-0 in last year’s Class C state final, will be a formidable opponent for George Stevens, but one at least the Eagles are a bit familiar with. The two teams met for the state title in 2000 with NYA winning 2-1 in double overtime.
The Panthers have given up one goal while scoring 10 in the playoffs. Caty VonBrecht has been hot in the playoffs with two goals in each of NYA’s games. She had the game-tying and game-winning goals, the latter in double overtime, to boost the No. 2 Panthers past No. 1 Dirigo of Dixfield in the Western C final.
Class B Gorham is relatively new to state championship games go, at least relative to this year’s crop of contestants. The Rams rallied to beat powerhouse Falmouth for their first berth in a Western Maine final since 1987, back when they were in Class A, and then went on to beat Maranacook of Readfield for their first trip to the state final since that year.
Gorham had help from a trio of Ashleys in the postseason. Ashley Michaud has scored three of the Rams’ eight playoff goals, while Ashley Wingert has a goal and two assists. Ashley Wood scored the game-winning goal in overtime against Falmouth in the semifinal.
Class A Greely has been a powerhouse in almost every sport in the past couple of years and soccer’s no exception. The Rangers will be playing for their third Class A title since 1994 and first since 2002.
Scoring has been spread out – Mary Skahan leads the way with four goals – but Molly Hamel has three postseason shutouts. The 12-4-1 Rangers’ losses include Class B powerhouse Falmouth and Class A rival Cape Elizabeth, which they avenged with a 2-0 win in the semifinals.
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