Bangor girls make statement with win Rams earn school’s first EM soccer title

BANGOR – A few hours after winning the Eastern Maine Class A title, several members of the Bangor High girls soccer team got together and watched “What Women Want,” a Mel Gibson movie about a man who gains the power to read women’s minds and learns to understand them in the process.

It was a fitting end for a day during which a Bangor girls team made school history.

The Rams won the school’s first Eastern Maine Class A soccer championship for both boys and girls over the weekend and will try to get even further at 1 p.m. Saturday when the Rams take on Gorham in the state championship at Morse High in Bath.

The 3-2 regional win over defending Class A state champion Brunswick provided a huge moment for an athletics program that has had success on a state level for its swimming and diving program in the 1980s and 1990s, but not much else for the girls in recent years.

Since 2000, Bangor High boys teams have won state championships in football, basketball, golf, swimming and tennis.

This year, with the boys soccer team losing in the quarterfinals and the football team failing to qualify for the playoffs, the girls have grabbed the attention.

“I think predominately people think of Bangor for boys sports,” said Ilyse Angst, a senior in her fourth year as the Rams’ starting goalie. “It’s always boys basketball, and even this year going into the soccer season the hype was that the boys were picked to win the state championship. And in this community, you win it all or you’re not much.

“But we did it, we went out there and proved that we can win,” she added. “The girls can win something in this city.”

It was also a big step for an area of the state that hasn’t had a girls soccer team in a Class A state final in 17 years.

The last time a girls team north of Waterville represented Eastern Maine Class A was 1988, when Caribou got to the state final. Most of the current Bangor players hadn’t even been born yet.

Since then, the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference has dominated. Traditional Penobscot Valley Conference Class A teams Bangor, Brewer, Old Town, Hampden and Nokomis of Newport joined the KVAC this year.

The move to the KVAC meant that the Rams played an all Class A schedule instead of games against teams like Class B Ellsworth and Presque Isle. Bangor responded with regular-season wins over traditional power Waterville, as well as Lawrence of Fairfield, Skowhegan and Mt. Blue of Farmington.

The Rams lost to Messalonskee of Oakland early in the season, but beat the Eagles in the semifinals, along with Oxford Hills of South Paris in the quarterfinal and Brunswick in the final.

Senior midfielder Hannah Bennett felt it took those wins for the Rams to gain some respect.

“After that it was like, oh wow, our girls are pretty decent,” she said. “I think people realize now that we’re more than just a bunch of girls.”

The KVAC coaches recognized Bangor’s success. First-year Bangor girls coach Larry Smith was named the conference Coach of the Year, as was boys coach Adam Leach. Midfielders Jessie Roberts and Erin MacDermott were on the all-conference first team, while forward Amy Hackett, Bennett and Angst were second-teamers.

Left off the all-conference list, however, was senior forward Serena Dubois, who has scored five goals in three playoff games.

“She’s got a lot of talent,” Bennett said. “Her build is so muscular, I wouldn’t want to go up against her. I’ve known her for a long time and since we’ve been young she’s always been the intimidator up front.”

Dubois has led the offense in the postseason, but Roberts was the leading scorer in the regular season with 13 goals and seven assists.

Angst, along with junior stopper Emily Heath and senior sweeper Kelly White, has given up just eight goals this year. The goalie has started more than 60 games in her career.

As with many state championship matchups, the Bangor players don’t know much about Gorham, which won the Class B state title last year. Bangor is planning to scrimmage Eastern Maine Class B champion Winslow on Wednesday, which should provide some answers. Gorham beat the Black Raiders 2-0 last year.

But Bangor’s familiarity with Gorham may not matter that much. After all, the Rams faced the unknown in their new conference all season and still came out on top.

“All year we’ve gone through with not knowing what to expect from teams,” Angst said. “We’ve taken the first five, 10 minutes of the game to figure out their good players. It’s worked so far, so why change it now?”