PORTLAND — Every high school athlete would love to end their career with a gold medal hanging around their neck — and the Massabesic girls lacrosse team was expecting that fairy-tale ending on Saturday afternoon in Portland.
Unfortunately for the Mustangs, who were the defending state champions, it would be the underdog Falmouth Yachtsmen who got to celebrate with the Class A trophy at Fitzpatrick Stadium as they picked up a 10-7 win over Massabesic.
“Hats off to (Falmouth). They are well-coached, well-prepared, well-skilled, great athletes and they were better today,” said Massabesic coach Brooks Bowen, who has led his team to three straight state finals.
It looked like the Mustangs were going to take control early in the game as senior Morgan Pike scored just two minutes into the contest.

The Yachtsmen, who dropped an 11-9 decision to Massabesic in the regular season, would prove early on that they weren’t going to go away.
Falmouth scored three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead with 10:02 left in the opening half. Christina Oakes, Kayla Sarazin and Chelsey Smithwick provided the scoring for the Yachtsmen, who would hold onto the lead the rest of the way.
Cailyn Forrester would get the Mustangs back within one when she scored off an assist from Madi Drain at the 9-minute mark of the first half.
Falmouth’s Caitlyn Camelio responded with a goal under a minute later to push the lead to 4-2, but Drain would send a rocket into the cage with 7:45 left to make it a one-goal contest.
The Yachtsmen sent a message in the final seven minutes of the period as they scored two more goals — one from both Eva Clement and Jo Stucker — to make it 6-3 at halftime.
In the opening minute of the second half, the Mustangs were unable to clear the ball out of their zone and Camelio took advantage with her second of four goals to make it 7-3.
Pike scored her second goal of the game — this time off a Skylar Renaud assist — to cut the lead to 7-4 with 22:33 remaining in regulation.
The Yachtsmen extended their lead to 9-4 with 17:39 left after Camelio and Sarazin found the back of the cage in a four-minute span.
Massabesic made one final push midway through the second half. Drain started the rally when she forced a turnover and scored with 14:31 left. Renaud added a goal off an assist from Logan Champlin at the 10:40 mark and Hallie Benton scored on a fastbreak just 16 seconds later to cut the lead to 9-7.
That would be as close as the Mustangs would get as Falmouth added a goal from Camelio with 5:47 remaining and held on from there.
“We just kind of ran out of gas there,” said Bowen, who also pointed to struggles at the faceoff and with securing groundballs. “The draw circle was a problem for us today. We knew that they were very good at the draw circle … and loose balls were a problem for us, I don’t think we came up even on those either — so again, those are opportunities.”
Bowen was clearly disappointed with the loss, but wasn’t expecting the game to be a coronation for the Mustangs.
“I don’t know if I was expecting it, but I certainly wouldn’t say we were caught by surprise. I mean that’s a high quality program,” said Bowen of Falmouth. “We’ve seen them three times now. We saw them in the preseason, we saw them in the regular season and we saw them again today. They do exactly what they do and they do it very well. They handle the ball well. They get up and down the field well and they were too much for us today.”
Falmouth coach Ashley Pullen might not be welcome in Waterboro in the near future as she was at the helm of Messalonskee High School until two years ago — the same year Messalonskee beat Massabesic in the state final.
Pullen was able to bring that experience of beating Massabesic with her to Falmouth and instill confidence in her new team.
“I think the biggest thing you take away from it is even if you’re the underdog going in, you’ve got to believe in your team and make sure they believe in themselves,” said Pullen on what she learned from the 2016 state final.
The Yachtsmen clearly bought in to Pullen’s message.
“The mental side of the game is huge, so not going in and playing scared or intimidated against a high-powered team,” added Pullen. “You know they have big, physical, tough girls — and it would be easy to sit back and go, ‘well, they are clearly the bigger, faster, stronger team so the game’s going to go to them.’ You have to make sure your mindset is not that the game is over before it’s begun.”
The fact that Falmouth won the Class A title this season was a surprise to most Maine lacrosse fans as Massabesic and Kennebunk (which had won back-to-back Class B state titles) were considered to be the heavy favorites to win gold this year.
Massabesic was able to take down Kennebunk in the Class A South final last week in arguably the most anticipated showdown of the year. Bowen refused to make excuses after Saturday’s final loss — whether it was any perceived letdown after the Kennebunk game or the distractions of graduation week.
“I don’t know. We had a pretty good practice on Thursday and Friday … of course we had our senior awards on Wednesday night and then our graduation (on Thursday), but I thought our practices coming into the game were good,” said Bowen. “(The practices) were high quality. We did a lot of situational stuff. We addressed the things that we were going to see here.”
Bowen had trouble putting into words what the Massabesic Class of 2018 — led by Benton, Champlin, Drain, Pike, Kaylee St. Laurent and Lydia Wasina — has meant to the Mustangs’ program.
“I don’t know … I’ve got to go over there and talk to them right now and I’ve got no idea what I’m going to say,” said Bowen. “I’m so proud of them. They’ve certainly set the benchmark for what this program is going to look like for the next several years … I’m going to miss them.”
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.