BANGOR, Maine — The George Stevens Academy Eagles from Blue Hill put on an impressive display of attacking soccer on Wednesday night, scoring three first-half goals en route to their first Class C North championship since 2002 with a 4-0 victory over Mount View High School of Thorndike on a frigid Wednesday night at Cameron Stadium in Bangor.
George Stevens, the fourth seed, improved to 13-2-2, while sixth seed Mount View finished up 12-5.
GSA will play Mt. Abram of Salem Township in Saturday’s state championship game at Mount Ararat High School in Topsham.
Midfielders Reed Pambianco and Rowan Gagne, and striker Fred Coit, all juniors, scored in the first half as the Eagles dominated possession and had a 13-3 edge in shot attempts.
Coit added his second in the second half.
“We started the game with good possession and we were pretty relentless on attack,” said GSA coach Mark Hundhammer. “It was a little scattered in the second half but, overall, I felt pretty confident with our group. We transitioned well and kept possession when we had to.”
Pambianco opened the scoring 12:42 into the game when he received the ball at the top of the penalty area and lofted his shot inside the post to the left of Bernie Dodge.
“Fred Coit tapped the ball back to me and I saw the’ keeper was out so I just dinked it over him,” said Pambianco. “I chipped him.”
Just under 10 minutes later, Coit expanded the lead thanks to a beautiful through ball from Jack Carson, whose pass sent him in alone on Dodge.
Coit tucked it past the goalkeeper from nine yards out.
“He stayed central, so I put it to his left,” said Coit.
Four minutes later, the Mustangs came inches away from cutting the lead to one.
Mount View was awarded a free kick just outside the penalty area and Tanner Oathout’s well-struck free kick got through to keeper Haven Smith, bounced around on the goal line and appeared on the verge of rolling over the goal line.
But GSA senior right center back Brady Pert came to the rescue, clearing it out of danger.
“(Goalkeeper Haven Smith) made a good read on it and was able to get a piece of it and get the ball out of the way,” explained Pert. “We had someone on the post and the ball ran up his legs and kicked back towards me so I was able to make a clear and get it out.”
“That made a big difference,” said Hundhammer. “That’s a team that battles. They knocked off the number two (Fort Kent) and number three (Foxcroft Academy) teams. We had a little cushion in the game and if they had scored, they would have kept coming at us.”
“That was a big momentum-changer right there,” said Mount View coach Burn Farris. “I don’t know how it didn’t go in.”
Eight minutes later, GSA made it 3-0 off a nifty give-and-go passing sequence that saw Dominic Levells take the ball to the end line before sending a low cross to the net front where Gagne ran on to it and guided it home from five yards out.
Coit scored from close-range midway through the second half.
Coit said the team’s performance “was one of our best so far.”
Smith finished with six saves on 12 shots while Dodge wound up with nine stops on 20 shots.
Lightning-quick and dynamic senior striker Noah Hurd was dangerous throughout but the Eagles did a nice job getting numbers back to keep him off the scoresheet.
Farris said he knew the first half was going to be tough “because we were going into the wind. We knew that first half was going to be a decider. They’re a good possession team.
“But we played hard and we’re young. We’ll be back,” said Farris, who started seven freshmen and sophomores.