Two of the region’s most successful girls soccer programs will have the opportunity to play this fall for the first time ever.
Class A Bangor High School and Class B Hermon, who have each won 11 playoff games, played in four regional championships and one state title in the last five years, will square off at 6 p.m. Oct. 29 at Pottle Field in Hermon.
The contest came about after area athletic administrators reconfigured their schedules to create better parity in some of the matchups.
That included sending Bangor to 2019 regional champion Hermon and having Brewer and Nokomis of Newport meet for the only time this fall.
Bangor AD Steve Vanidestine said Bangor was late to firm up its schedule because of the Bangor School Committee vote on a return to play. Other schools like Hermon already had a full complement of games.
Bangor is 4-0-1 this season and Hermon is 6-0 going into a Friday game against Brewer.
“Our girls are really excited about it,” Hermon coach M.J. Ball said. “[Good] competition is what we’re looking for. It has been great this year that we will get to play three Class A teams [Hampden Academy, Brewer and Bangor] that we normally wouldn’t play.”
Hermon beat Hampden Academy twice this fall.
Ball said Bangor and Hermon are both used to going deep into the season for the playoffs, so their game will take on a regional championship feel.
Bangor is 11-4 in the playoffs the last five years with all four losses coming against four-time state Class A champ Camden Hills of Rockport. The Rams earned the state A title in 2015.
Hermon is 11-5 during the same span and lost to Cape Elizabeth 4-0 in last year’s Class B state final.
“This is a great opportunity for our kids. They will be challenged. Hermon has a very strong program in several sports,” Vanidestine said.
Players from both schools play club soccer together including several for the River City Athletics soccer club, where Ball is the coaching director and a coach.