RICHMOND — Cam Goodrich netted a pair of goals and Ryan Baker added a goal and two assists to lead North Yarmouth Academy to a 4-1 victory over Richmond in high school boys Class D soccer action on Monday.

While dodging the raindrops on a wet field in the raw temperatures, the Panthers outshot the Bobcats, 15-4 in the contest, improving to 12-2 to close out the regular season. Richmond fell to 8-4-1 and will travel to Buckfield on Tuesday at 4 p.m to close out their regular season.

“Both teams like to play and that’s why I like coming up here,” NYA coach Martyn Keen said. “They have a good tradition here at Richmond and I’ve known Peter since he was at Brunswick so we know his kids come to play.”

“We always come to play,” Richmond coach Peter Gardner said. “We really spend our time trying to get the kids to play the game the right way.”

Less than five minutes in, Goodrich took a feed from Baker and beat Richmond goalie Kyle Tilton for the game’s first score.

The next time down the field, the Panthers nearly scored again when Finn Murray sent a direct kick towards the net, where Baker headed the ball over the crossbar for a miss.

The Richmond defense of Adam Beaulieu and Mitch Couturier kept it a one-goal game, but the Panthers struck again with a little under 23 minutes, Baker found Chas Rhode in front of the net. Titlton was able to get a hand on the Rhode’s shot, but the wet ball slipped off his hands for the second goal.

In the 23rd minute, Richmond put a goal on the scoreboard when Dan Stewart fed Dakotah Gilpatric and the junior beat Panther goalie Julian Etauri to cut the deficit to one goal.

NYA answered four minutes later as Rhode found Baker off to the right side and the senior captain blasted a shot into the back of the net to push the lead to 3-1, where the score stood heading into the halftime break.

NYA outshot Richmond 8-3 in the opening frame, also holding the advantage in corner kicks, 4-2.

Richmond continued to struggle to put pressure on the NYA defense, not being able to generate any sort of rhythm on offense.

“We failed to capitalize on opportunities,” Gardner said. “When we have to come up on our defense, our defense should disrupt the play and start our attack, and that wasn’t happening much at all.

“It’s tough to do that when your back on defense as they kept coming and coming and attacking.”

While the Panthers were attacking, more of the Bobcat defense kept NYA away from the net much of the first 20 minutes of the second half. The pressure caused by Richmond, contributed to several missed opportunities by the Panthers.

“We should have put more chances away and scored more, but that’s what the game is about.” Keen said. “If you don’t put good teams away, they keep hanging around.”

With 11 minutes left on the clock, Goodrich sealed the victory with his second goal of the game off an assist from Damon Dulac.

The win was the second time the Panthers have beaten Richmond this season. It also puts the Panthers on a modest two-game win streak according to Keen.

“We had a real wake up against Sacoppe Valley (2-0 loss) last week after putting up nine against them earlier in the season,” Keen said. “It was important to end the season with a couple of wins.”

A 7-0 blanking of Buckfield last week, along with today’s victory will solidify the Panthers as the No. 1 seed in the State Class D South tournament getting underway later this week.

“We’re ready for the playoffs and I expect to see them again,” Keen added.

As for Gardner and the Bobcats, they’ll take on Buckfield and then look ahead to playoffs, playing with the same effort they’ve had all season.

“I’m not discouraged of how we played. Every time we play, we always get the effort we ask for,” the Richmond coach said.

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