By Stephen Ham
Special to the Leader
The Scarborough Boys Lacrosse team won the right to host the Western Maine Class A Lacrosse final, by defeating two playoff foes this past week.
In the first, Scarborough faced the Noble Knights, and while the Knights were game, they simply didn’t have the players to match up with Scarborough. The Storm rolled over them, 18-1, behind Ryan Hunt’s five goals, with Chris Kipp and Matt Mayo each adding a hat trick.
Scarborough Coach Joe Hezlep wasn’t sorry for the disparity, as it gave him a chance to give substitutes valuable playoff experience, and also to rest some of his ailing starters.
“We talked about going harder, getting out in front, and keeping the pressure on, and I think we were able to do that today,” he said.
The game of the week was against the Gorham Rams, winners of a playoff game against Massabesic. The contest took place in Gorham on a sunny, hot Saturday, and showcased the Red Storm’s ability to make mid-game adjustments defensively as well as their understanding of how to take advantage of matchups offensively.
Scarborough charged out to a 5-2 lead early in the second quarter, with Hunt leading the charge, on the way to an incredible seven goals, two assists game. It was at this point the Red Storm defense ran into trouble with penalties. Getting caught flat footed, they were flagged five times in the half and Gorham took full advantage, played opportunistically, and scored three straight goals on man-up situations to tie the score at 5-5 with 2:53 left in the half. Suddenly, Scarborough found themselves in a game.
Hezlep explained it this way, “We were a little lazy on defense. We tried to get away with stuff we shouldn’t have, tried to take the ball away when it wasn’t there, and they [Gorham] were doing a good job of going hard and drawing penalties.”
Fortunately for the Storm, they had been in this situation earlier in the season, in a game against the Deering Rams that was eerily reminiscent of this one. And just as they did in that game, the defense stepped up and did not allow another Ram score and didn’t take another penalty until late in the fourth quarter when the victory was well in hand.
Offensively, the Storm displayed a discipline that was not present earlier in the year, and an understanding of how to move defenses in order to gain an advantage. The first two goals Hunt scored were great examples. On both plays, Jake Barrett had the ball in transition and drew the defense to him before making quick passes to Hunt for easy goals. Another case in point was the Scarborough offense’s constant pestering of Gorham’s defense when they attempted to clear the ball from their goal. Their efforts denied the Rams the ability to use their speedy midfielders, and in one exceptional case led to a Red Storm score when Danny Clark intercepted a Gorham clearing pass in the third quarter and immediately hit Hunt who was loitering around the goal, and jammed home his sixth score of the day.
Hezlep was pleased with the results and complimented his senior attacker on what was a career day on a big stage.
“Ryan Hunt was great today. He really stepped up when we needed to. He knew he had a good matchup today and he took advantage of it,” he said.
 Kipp and Barrett added three goals apiece, and Barrett and Brendan Ham had three assists each.
The Red Storm record now stands at 12-2, and with one more victory, they will be headed to the state championship game for the second time in three years. That game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Saturday, June 21 at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium.