HERMON – John Bapst’s Ian Bamford has always wanted to win an Eastern Maine soccer championship. As a youngster he watched his older sister, Bri Bamford, win regional titles as a member of the George Stevens of Blue Hill girls soccer team.

Bamford’s desire for the title bubbled over Tuesday in the EM Class B boys final against Ellsworth.

The senior forward scored two first-half goals and the Crusaders of Bangor held off the hard-charging Eagles in the second half en route to a 2-1 victory – and that elusive Eastern Maine crown.

“I was a ball boy there and I wanted so badly to be on the field,” Bamford said of watching his sister play. “This is a dream come true and to win it this year, it’s amazing.”

The next stop for the Crusaders is Saturday’s Class B state championship game. They’ll play Western Maine champ Falmouth, a 4-1 winner over York on Tuesday.

The state final, which will be a rematch of the 2001 game that Falmouth won 1-0, will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lewiston High.

Bamford first scored with 20:46 left off a pass from Casey Hull, and then made it 2-0 about six minutes later when he kicked in the rebound of a shot.

“I got lucky,” Bamford said of the second goal, which was the eventual game-winner. “It just bounced around and ended up right on the line. I missed one of those against Winslow [in the semifinals] and I wasn’t going to do it again.”

Bryan Stackpole responded for Ellsworth when he drilled in a bouncing ball from Demetrios Katsiaficas that came across the penalty area with 11 minutes remaining for a 2-1 halftime score. It was senior Stackpole’s first-ever goal.

Given how close the Ellsworth and John Bapst boys soccer team played during the regular season – each team won a one-goal game at home – Tuesday’s final was bound to be just as tight.

“We played well in the other games against them,” John Bapst senior captain Sam Rioux said. “We just had to come out even stronger for this.”

The Eagles had a 7-5 advantage in shots on goal after halftime, but they were also called offsides at least three times in the second half as their forwards tried to get loose on breakaways.

Ellsworth also had trouble controlling through-balls from the midfield so that the forwards could run on to the passes.

“It hurt a little bit, sure, but we had chances,” Eagles coach Brian Higgins said. “The field was very fast and we didn’t handle that at all. Everything we hit was too hard and [Bapst goalie Chris Smith] picked up a lot of balls that if they were a little bit slower he wouldn’t have gotten to them.”

The Crusaders have tried all season to pull opposing players offsides but it seemed to finally click against the Eagles.

“We’ve been trying to work on our offsides all year,” Rioux said. “We just had to shut down their angles and their long balls.”

Bapst also controlled the midfield with its short passing game.

“We try to get everyone in the midfield involved and keep it moving around to everyone,” midfielder Jordan Myers said.

Smith finished with five saves on 11 shots, while Ellsworth’s Greg Berry made five saves on 10 shots.

“They were awesome today,” Higgins said. “… I thought in the second half we played more even but the first half they really took it to us.”

Crusaders coach Andy Frace picked up his first regional crown in Class B, but not his first overall. The former Hampden Academy coach guided the Broncos to Class B regional titles in 1995 and 1998.

Frace is in his first season coaching the Bapst varsity. He took over for his son, Evan, who coached until this year when he decided to go to graduate school.

“Evan built it. I just managed it,” said Andy Frace, who made a beeline for a hug from his son after the game ended.