Scarborough loses state title game to Bangor

By Emory Rounds
Special to the Leader
    There will be no back-to-back titles.
    In an upset that could easily be labeled as stunning, Scarborough’s boys soccer team lost out on its bid to repeat as state champions to upstart Bangor. After fighting off 33 shots on goal, the Rams (16-1-1) clinched with 5:07 remaining in the second overtime when freshman Nick George lofted a slow, drifting corner kick from the right side to just in front of the Scarborough (17-1-1) net.
    Sophomore Ryan Larochelle was there waiting for it, and his awkward, off-balance left-to-right shot blasted past Red Storm goalie Adam Blanchard. It was Larochelle’s first varsity goal, possibly the biggest in the history of Bangor soccer.
    “Usually I will wait out around the 18-yard line,” Larochelle said. “But this time since it was so close to the end of the game, my brother, Christian – who was on the other side – came over and said hey, you go in on this one, go towards the penalty kick line and I’ll wait out for you. Let’s go all out for this one corner kick – we have nothing to lose now.”
    Certainly, the Rams had nothing to lose in taking risks.
    While not dominated by any stretch of the imagination, Bangor had spent the majority of regulation and the two overtimes playing defense – playing to keep Scarborough’s powerful offense from building any momentum.
    In the first overtime, Bangor was out shot 6-0 by the Red Storm, but few of Scarborough’s kicks on Nov. 4 looked like potential winning shots. As it turned out, none were.
    “I think I go back to just the character that each one of these young men have,” said Bangor head coach Adam Leach. “They just dug down and found something. I think it’s fitting that a back scored that goal, because our guys played tremendous defense all afternoon. We knew that they were going to be fast and that we would have to contend with that.”
    It is worth noting that the game was marred by officiating that, at times, seemed to rob the Red Storm players of their ability to be aggressive.
    Specifically, with 12:27 remaining in the second half – when Scarborough seemed to be building up momentum for a final push – senior Phil Lambert was hit with a yellow card during a stoppage of play (for another yellow card offense against Bangor) that seemed inexplicable, given that the official was over 30 yards away from the supposed infraction and had his back turned.
    Barely a minute later, the Red Storm’s Brent Mayo was hit with a yellow card. Mayo’s offense? He was tripped. Yes, you read that correctly  – he was tripped. Not the other way around. This was a nightmare scenario for the Red Storm and they instantly seemed to deflate.
    “Those cards, I think, threw us off a bit, and we had to make some adjustments,” said Scarborough head coach Mark Diaz. “They were very strange calls. We had to make some adjustments. We lost our starting sweeper, and without a doubt my best forward, so it was crazy. It forced us to do some things a little different and took us out of our game.”
    By the time Scarborough was back at full strength, regulation had nearly run out, forcing a dicey, sudden death overtime that the Rams were able to pull out.
    “It was a great game,” Diaz said. “I have got to give Bangor credit, they played great defense and they made the saves when they had to. Sometimes that’s what happens in soccer – we carried the play, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Our shot selection was okay, but it could have been better.”