HAMPDEN – The Bangor Christian boys soccer team flirted with frustration during the first 20 minutes of Saturday evening’s Eastern Maine Class D championship game.

Van Buren – which defeated the Patriots in this same game a year ago en route to winning the state championship – twice shot the ball off the goalpost and had several other chances to grab the game’s momentum. But the top-seeded and undefeated Patriots withstood that onslaught, then used goals by Ignacio Bustos and Josh Griffin to earn a 2-1 victory and the program’s first regional title.

Bangor Christian (17-0) plays Western D champion Richmond in Saturday’s state final at a site to be determined. Van Buren ends its season at 14-1-2.

“It’s sweet, the sweetest thing any of our players can taste right now,” said sweeper Matt Denbow, one of nine senior starters for Bangor Christian. “When we lost to them last year up there, that was the hardest trip coming back home. We wanted to come out today and prove ourselves, and our offense finished, our midfield stepped up, and our defense has been together for so long that everyone covers for each other.”

The win didn’t come easy.

Van Buren’s Alex Martin and Brandon Boulware each blasted shots off the right goalpost early in the match. Boulware’s shot was deflected by BC goalie Josh Frost before hitting the post.

“We came out a little flat, and they got a lot a shots off and had two really close calls with those posts,” said Frost. “It was hard to keep our composure, but we pulled together at the end of the first half.”

Indeed, coach Aaron Wilcox’s Patriots regrouped midway through the period, in part as senior striker Brock Bradford moved from striker to center-halfback, a position he shares with classmate Justin Phinney to give each other rest.

“They switched one of their players into the middle and it made a difference in the tempo,” said Van Buren coach Steve LaPierre. “We started going back and forth a little more. We went flat for about 10 minutes, then we picked it up again and we had our own chances.”

Bangor Christian took the lead with 15:39 left in the first half as Bustos scored on a rebound amid a scramble in front of the net. The goal was the senior’s school-record 34th of the season.

“I was waiting for the rebound, and it came right to me and I put it in,” he said.

BC made it 2-0 on a counterattack with 6:31 left in the half, a play set up when Bustos grounded a perfect pass to Griffin on the right wing. Griffin waited for Van Buren goalie Andrew Taylor to challenge him, then slid the ball just past Taylor and inside the far post.

“[Bustos] set me up with a fantastic pass,” said Griffin, “and all I had to do was put the ball in the net.”

Van Buren cut the gap to 2-1 with 10:41 left in the match off a corner kick.

Jean-Pierre Dumond kicked the ball toward the goal crease, where Craig St. Pierre directed it back to Jacob Doucette. Doucette, one of just four seniors on the Crusaders’ roster, rocketed a 15-yarder just inside the right goal post.

Frost finished with seven saves on eight Van Buren shots on goal, while Taylor stopped 10 of 11 BC shots.

“Van Buren’s a great team, no question,” said Griffin. “They’ve won Eastern Maines a lot the last five or six years, and it was a real struggle to win today.

“They started out strong the first 20 minutes, and I think we just figured out, us seniors, that this was our last game if we didn’t start playing better.”