The Maine Principals’ Association on Thursday switched the sites of Saturday’s high school soccer state championship matches in Classes A and C.
The Class A boys and girls matches, originally scheduled for Hampden Academy, now will be played at Deering High School in Portland while the Class C games have been moved from Portland to Hampden.
The games will be played at the same times as originally scheduled, but MPA assistant executive director Mike Bisson said the move was made to reduce travel for the majority of the teams involved.
“It’s really a travel piece,” said Bisson, also the liaison for the MPA’s soccer committee. “When you looked at it and saw (Class A) Portland, Scarborough and Lewiston coming up to Hampden and (Class C) Fort Kent or George Stevens and Houlton, Madison and Maranacook going to Portland, you looked to see if there’s an easy swap for this.
“This one just seemed to make sense for six of the eight schools and should save them a significant amount of travel.”
Under the revised schedule, Saturday’s action at Hampden Academy begins at 10 a.m. with the Class C boys final between Maranacook of Readfield and Fort Kent.
That will be followed at 12:30 p.m. by the Class C girls match between Madison and Houlton.
The Class D doubleheader follows at 3 p.m. with Bangor Christian facing either Richmond or Buckfield in the boys final followed by the girls match between Ashland and Richmond at 5:30 p.m.
Saturday’s revised schedule in Portland commences with the Class A boys final between Lewiston and Portland at 10 a.m., followed by the Class A girls matchup between Camden Hills of Rockport and Scarborough at 12:30 p.m.
The Class B finals kick off with the boys match between Yarmouth and either Washington Academy of East Machias or Winslow at 3 p.m., with the girls match between Presque Isle and either Yarmouth or Cape Elizabeth at 5 p.m.
“The borderline schools in this situation were Maranacook, Madison and Camden Hills, but there’s really no tie to Portland for Maranacook and Madison and no tie to Hampden for Camden Hills,” said Bisson. “It just reduces some travel for a lot of people, and hopefully there will be better crowds.”
Camden Hills athletic administrator Steve Alex had no complaints about the change with regard to the Windjammers’ girls soccer team, which won the 2016 Class A state championship at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.
“It’s a little bit farther, but I understand there were some travel concerns,” he said. “A good thing is that we don’t have the first game, the 10 o’clock game, so our kids can still get a good night’s sleep and catch a reasonable bus to get down there with sufficient warm-up time.”
Follow BDN Maine Sports on Facebook for the latest in Maine high school and college sports.
