BANGOR – The Yarmouth High School Clippers have been one of the state’s best boys soccer teams for a long time and they added to their crowded trophy case at a rainy Cameron Stadium on Saturday morning.
Senior striker/midfielder Lucas Hayner scored a pair of goals and assisted on the other as the Clippers shut out John Bapst High of Bangor 3-0 for their 18th state championship.
Senior back/midfielder Cael Woelflein had a goal and an assist and senior goalkeeper Gabriel Janczuk made a crucial second-half save off a breakaway.
It was John Bapst’s only shot on goal in the contest. The Crusaders had three shot attempts.
John Bapst senior goalie Bode Phillips turned in an exceptional performance, stopping seven shots. Yarmouth had 23 attempts in claiming its second straight B title.
Both teams wound up 16-1-1.
“It was one of our best games of the season. We knew that’s what we needed to do to win this game,” said Hayner, an All-American a year ago who will play for Gettysburg College (PA) next season. “We worked hard. We did stuff we stressed all season: finding passes, moving, dynamic, building out of the back.”
“We really came together today. We played as one,” added Hayner, who opened the scoring with 15:21 left in the first half.
He took a pass from Woelflein with his back to the goal, spun and slipped a perfectly-place shot inside the post to the right of Phillips.
“Cael made a great pass to me. I took a touch around a defender and my momentum was already going to the right so I thought I would cut it back because [Philllips] would be on his toes to the right side.”
It was 1-0 at the half, but Hayner expanded the lead early in the second half.
A Cole MacVane cross went to Tate MacVane and it glanced off his foot into the path of Hayner.
“I don’t know if [Tate MacVane] meant to set me up on purpose but it rolled perfectly to my feet, I was running across it and swung through it,” said Hayner, who steered it past Phillips’s right hand side with the inside of his right foot for his 20th goal of the season.
The Clippers were completely controlling play but, with 18:18 left, the Crusaders had a golden opportunity to cut the lead in half when Josh Pangburn sent a long pass upfield to Kasper Hansen, who had gotten behind the defense and broke in alone on Janczuk.
Janczuk raced off his line and smothered Hansen’s shot with his chest.
“The goalie made a great play to come out and give Kasper no time,” said John Bapst coach Jason Pangburn.
“That was a really important save,” said Hayner. “It doesn’t seem like it on the scoreboard but if they score that and it goes to 2-1, it’s a whole different game.”
Woelflein pointed out that Janczuk hadn’t played soccer since eighth grade. He had been on the golf team and they talked him into coming out for soccer.
“He’s a wonderful goalie,” said Woelflein, who sewed up the win a few minutes later when he took a Hayner pass off his chest and then volleyed his shot past Phillips.
“They were the best team we played all year,” said John Bapst midfielder and Penobscot Valley Conference Class B Player of the Year Rafa Rentosa, one of the captains.
Coach Pangburn said he was “super proud” of his team.
“We competed well against a machine,” said Pangburn. “They are a super talented team at every position and coming off the bench.”
“We kept playing. We never backed down,” said Rentosa.