The years of hard work have paid off.

The youngsters who began playing hockey in the Houlton-Hodgdon youth program before there was a high school varsity team have earned the right to play for the Eastern Maine Class B hockey title tonight at Alfond Arena.

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks, in just their seventh year of existence and playing in their first final, will face Brewer for the championship at 7 p.m.

“It’s going to be awesome,” said Black Hawk senior left wing and leading scorer Ian Pasquarelli. “I always used to wonder how we’d do when we got to this point.”

Pretty well.

The second-seeded Black Hawks have compiled a 17-4 record. They rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat defending EM Class B champ Winslow 5-3 at Winslow’s Sukee Arena in Saturday’s semifinals.

“This has been a dream of mine ever since I started playing hockey,” said Houlton-Hodgdon senior defenseman Sam Tweedie.

Top seed Brewer, 18-4, beat Orono 4-2 to earn its way into the final. Brewer is in its first season in Class B after being a Class A playoff team for several years.

Houlton-Hodgdon has used its depth and balance to reach the final.

Fourth-year head coach Joel Trickey skates three lines and three sets of defensemen on a regular basis.

“We try to use our speed, our three lines and our three sets of defensemen to keep the game flowing and wear down the other team,” he said.

Tweedie said, “We work together real well. Our three lines can hold their own with any in the state.”

Pasquarelli added, “We’ve got a good, all-around team” that doesn’t have to rely on a couple of players like some other teams.

Pasquarelli also said regular- season wins over Winslow, Brewer and Orono have fueled their confidence.

All nine forwards on the top three lines have at least 13 points. In fact, each member of their third line of Morgan Hall (7 goals, 6 assists) between Grady Anderson (8 & 5) and Micah Carton (2 & 11) has 13 points.

Pasquarelli (13 & 18) plays on the top line with center Billy Policano (16 & 14) and right wing Jordan Gard (15 & 11). Chris Howland (7 & 9) centers the second line between Sharif Abouleish (8 & 11) and Sam Carter (4 & 11).

Spare forward-defenseman Chris McGuire has 3 & 4.

All six defensemen have at least four points led by Eben Thompson (2 & 6), Josh McGuire (2 & 5) and Zach Chase (2 & 5). Tweedie and Alex Mooers have five points each and Taylor Martin has four.

Veteran goalie Nic Joslyn has a 2.36 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage.

The Black Hawks will have their hands full against Brewer and expect a physical game from the bigger Witches.

Brewer has two prolific scoring lines featuring Zach Wilson, Dylan Fitzpatrick, Ben Caldwell, Reid McLaughlin, and Prentiss Swett. Defenseman Matt Wilson, Zach’s brother, is one of the state’s top-scoring defensemen.

Zach Wilson has a team-high 26 goals and Dylan Fitzpatrick has 23. Swett had a pair of goals in the win over Orono.

Killian Kilroy and Devin Fitzpatrick have been stellar on the blue line.

Brewer’s Aaron Saunders has been solid between the pipes and made 29 saves against Orono.