John Bapst High School goalie Cam Leighton recently turned 15. But he certainly isn’t playing like a 15-year-old.
Leighton has allowed only one goal in three playoff games and has made 53 saves to lead the Bangor-based Crusaders to their first ever Class B North championship.
Saturday’s 10:30 a.m. state championship game will feature John Bapst against defending champ Cheverus-Yarmouth at the Cross Ice Arena in Portland.
Leighton made 27 saves in the 3-1 win over Messaslonskee of Oakland in the B North regional final after stopping 19 shots in the 3-0 semifinal win over Hampden Academy. He had seven saves in the 5-0 triumph over Houlton-Hodgdon-Katahdin in the quarterfinals.
“He may be the best 15-year-old goalie I’ve ever seen,” said Bangor High School coach Quinn Paradis, whose Rams battled to a 2-2 tie with John Bapst earlier in the season. “He made some crucial saves at the end of the game against us. And he was calm and composed, which you don’t expect to see from a 15-year-old.”
Leighton has never lost as he will go into the state game with an 11-0-1 record. And he hasn’t allowed more than two goals in any of his starts. He had a 1.11 goals-against average during the regular season and a .940 save percentage.
“Their goalie played an amazing game, one of the best performances I’ve seen. He made some crucial saves. He played his butt off,” said Messalonskee’s Owen Kirk, the state’s leading scorer and the only Eagle to put the puck past Leighton in the regional final.
“He’s one of the better goalies in the league, I’d say the best,” said John Bapst senior defenseman Silas Comstock.
Senior Trenton Zetes played the other nine regular season games for John Bapst and had an 8-1 record to go with an 0.67 GAA and .954 save percentage.
The 19-1-1 Crusaders, who also have players from Hermon High on their roster, have allowed only 17 goals in their 21 games to date including playoff contests.
Cheverus-Yarmouth, 18-2-1, has also been very stingy, surrendering only 24 goals in their 21 games.
Cheverus has also used two goalies. Brayden Fitch had an 0.86 GAA and .952 save percentage and Ethan Tucker had a 1.15 GAA and a .944 save percentage.
Offensively, John Bapst has been led by the senior trio of center Will Bourgeois, defenseman Nick Needham and left wing Owen Marryatt along with junior left wing Cooper Lewis and sophomore defenseman Owen Hart.
Bourgeois had 21 goals and 14 assists during the regular season and has produced three goals and an assist in the three playoff games. Needham is the team’s top scorer in the playoffs with three goals and four assists after notching 11 goals and 22 assists during the regular season. Marryatt has three goals and three assists in the post-season after racking up 11 goals and six assists during the regular season.
Lewis’ goal and two assists in the playoffs now give him nine goals and 17 assists in all games and Hart’s three playoff assists have upped his point total to 22 on seven goals and 15 assists.
Cheverus’ regular season scoring leaders were senior Quinn McCoy (8 goals, 20 assists), sophomore Owen Cheever (11 & 15) and juniors Colby Carnes (9 & 12), Hakon Yeo (11 & 8) and Matthew Paradis (3 & 13).
Cheverus, a 4-3 winner over Camden Hills of Rockport in last year’s state title game, has reached the state game by virtue of wins over Cape Elizabeth (5-0), Leavitt of Turner (3-1) and Gorham (4-2).
In the Class A final at 1 p.m., third seed Thornton Academy of Saco, 16-3-1, will take on fourth seed Kents Hill, 12-7-1. Each team has won five of its last six games and they split their regular season games with each winning at home.
Kents Hill will be seeking its first state title after reaching the final with wins over Bangor (6-0) and Falmouth (4-2) while Thornton Academy will be looking for its second state crown in three years.
Thornton Academy reached the final with wins over Windham-Westbrook-Bonny Eagle (11-0) and defending state champ Lewiston (1-0).