PORTLAND — Yarmouth junior Eric LaBrie had ample scoring opportunities during the Class B state championship game Saturday at Deering High School.
LaBrie received countless through balls and chips over the Winslow defense looking for him to use his speed and dribbling skills to find an opening.
But in the end, it was LaBrie who helped set up the game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory over the Black Raiders.
LaBrie got the ball at the left side of the box on a short pass from the left wing late in the second half. As Winslow goalie Jake Lapierre — as well as a couple defenders — came over to defend, LaBrie slipped a pass to the middle to Jack Jones, who scored his eighth goal of the season into an open net from 10 yards out.
“It was a fabulous play by Eric as he played the ball through and passed it to me,” said Jones. “I had a pretty easy goal to score. Really, it was my teammates setting me up.”
Yarmouth won its fourth straight Gold Ball and 12th overall, passing Falmouth for the most in state history.
Yarmouth coach Mike Hagerty, who claimed his ninth title in his 21st season at the helm, scouted Winslow three times, and identified a plan of attack of going wide.
“Eric is really just so much to contend with,” said Hagerty. “Jack, Max (Coury) and Taj (Garvey) do a nice job when Eric collects two or three defenders by finding open gaps and thankfully he got it to Jack. We made a bit of a change in the second half and I thought we played cleaner and pushed the ball out wide more.”
The Clippers (18-0-0) extended their winning streak to 24 games and their unbeaten streak to 31— covering two seasons.
They scored first with 12:31 left in the first half.
LaBrie dribbled toward the middle of the field and scored off his own rebound, after an initial save by Lapierre (19 saves). It was his 26th tally of the season.
Winslow (15-4-0) came close to tying it less than a minute later when Jack Morneault clanged a shot off the post from 10 yards out.
The Black Raiders — who lost to the Clippers 5-2 in last year’s final — tied it with 9:07 left in the half when Michael Wildes curled in a free kick to the near post from 35 yards out.
After a pretty even first half, Yarmouth controlled most of the final 40 minutes with a 16-1 shot advantage and a 5-1 edge in corner kicks.
“I thought we played better in the first half,” Winslow coach Aaron Wolfe said. “We had that one good chance off the post. Against a good team you got to (convert) those breaks. In the second half they just wore us down. What makes (Yarmouth) so good is they got skill but also got depth. We don’t quite have the numbers that they have and that played a role as the game wore on.”
Coury appeared to give the Clippers the lead in the 67th minute when his shot off a rebound of a free kick by LaBrie was saved by Winslow defender Max Spaulding, who came across the goal line.
Hagerty said he team is comfortable in close games because assistant coaches Matt Morrill and Justin Morrill have both scored in one-goal games in state championships and parlay those stories to the team.
“We’ve been in five other one-goal games this year,” he said. “For us, we don’t get nervous. We’ve been in this position before — in the playoffs and certainly state championships.”
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