Yarmouth and Greely play to tie

CUMBERLAND—There’s usually not much separation when Greely and Yarmouth’s boys’ soccer teams square off and Saturday afternoon, absolutely nothing was decided in the squads’ second of a possible three meetings this autumn.

After the Clippers failed to convert on some early chances, the Rangers struck first, as in the 24th minute, senior Aidan Melville set up classmate Silas Cunningham for a 1-0 lead.

Yarmouth had a decided edge in shots on frame and corner kicks, but couldn’t answer and as the game grew late, Greely’s first home win over its rival in over a decade appeared imminent.

But the Clippers are never out of a game and with just 3:26 to play, off a corner kick, junior Cam Merrill headed the ball to senior Aidan Hickey, who headed it home to tie the score.

Neither team could find the net in the remainder of regulation or in 10 minutes of overtime and the contest went in the books as a 1-1 draw.

Yarmouth settled for its second straight tie and is now 10-0-2 on the season, while the Rangers, who have split Heal Points in nearly half their outings this year, are 5-1-4.

“I thought we had some good chances,” said longtime Greely coach Mike Andreasen. “Our goal for this game was win, lose or draw, we wanted to make sure we felt good about our effort. The kids held up well.”

Always compelling

While Yarmouth has owned the rivalry in recent years, Greely has rarely made things easy.

The teams had just one combined loss between them entering play Saturday.

The Rangers edged visiting Cape Elizabeth (3-2) to start, then settled for a 2-2 home draw versus Freeport. After a 4-0 loss at Yarmouth, the Rangers handled host Fryeburg Academy, 5-1, handed visiting Waynflete its first loss, 1-0, then held off visiting Gray-New Gloucester (2-1). After a 2-2 tie at Cape Elizabeth and a 1-1 draw at Freeport, Greely blanked visiting Wells Thursday, 11-0.

Yarmouth, meanwhile, started with a 3-1 home win over York, then blanked host Lake Region (7-0), host Cape Elizabeth in a playoff rematch (1-0), visiting Greely (4-0), host Freeport (1-0) and visiting North Yarmouth Academy, the defending Class D champion (8-0). After a 9-1 home win over Fryeburg Academy, the Clippers blanked visiting Poland (7-0), host York (3-0) and visiting Cape Elizabeth (3-0). Thursday, Yarmouth settled for a 1-1 home tie against Freeport.

On Sept. 14, junior Will Dickinson, sophomore Stevie Fulton, senior Jason Lainey and senior Will Nicholas all had goals, while senior Liam Ireland set up two goals and senior Alejandro Coury and junior Baden McLaughlin also had assists.

That win was the Clippers’ 12th in the teams’ last 13 meetings (with the other encounter being a tie).

Saturday, on a raw and drizzly 53-degree afternoon, Greely looked for its first win over Yarmouth since Sept. 9, 2014 (1-0 at Yarmouth) and its first in Cumberland since way back on Oct. 10, 2007 (1-0), but the Rangers weren’t able to close it out.

The Clippers had some good chances early, but a low shot from Fulton was saved by Greely senior goalkeeper Schuyler Wetmore, Coury, after taking a pass from Ireland, was robbed by Wetmore, and shots from Ireland and junior Ian LaBrie were saved by Wetmore as well.

The Rangers then turned the pitch in their favor and after Melville missed high in front and Melville was robbed by Yarmouth senior goalkeeper Spencer King, the hosts broke the ice, as with 16:15 left in the half, Melville weaved through the Clippers’ defense, then passed in front to Cunningham, who ripped a shot past King for a 1-0 lead.

Yarmouth tried to answer before the break, but Ireland had a shot saved by Wetmore, a cross from junior Will Hunter to LaBrie was just out of reach, senior John Clinton chipped a shot just high, then Clinton sent a left-footed blast just high to send the game to halftime with Greely on top, 1-0.

In the first 40 minutes, the Clippers held a 5-2 shots advantage, but they found themselves behind.

The second half saw Yarmouth push for the equalizer, but the Clippers couldn’t manage to do so until late in regulation.

Just 41 seconds into the second stanza, Ireland had a look, but Wetmore made the save.

Yarmouth then earned the first of its eight second half corners, but had nothing to show for it.

After Coury had a shot saved by Wetmore, Greely looked to double its lead, but off a pass from senior Andy Moore, junior Lucas Goettel’s header sailed just high.

The Clippers then had four corner kicks in nine minutes, but headers from Dickinson and junior Evan Van Lonkhuyzen were saved by Wetmore.

With time winding down, Greely was close enough to taste a rare victory over Yarmouth, but the Clippers kept pushing and were eventually rewarded.

With just under 4 minutes showing, Ireland served a corner kick and the ball somehow eluded Wetmore and skipped through the goalmouth untouched, but Yarmouth stayed with it and earned another corner kick and the ninth one was the charm, as the ball landed in the box, bounced out to Merrill and he headed the ball toward the far post, where Hickey was waiting to head the ball home to tie it, 1-1, with 3:26 on the clock.

“I’m proud of Aidan,” longtime Yarmouth coach Mike Hagerty said. “He wanted to do something. I waited until about 10 minutes after he asked to give him a chance. He’s played very little striker his whole life.”

“They made a nice play on their goal,” Andreasen said. “Our guy needed to get off the post earlier.”

Late in regulation, Greely nearly retook the lead, but Cunningham’s free kick was cleared by the Clippers’ defense after King couldn’t collect it.

The Clippers then looked to steal one, but Ireland missed wide and the game went to overtime.

In high school soccer, teams play up to a pair of five-minute, “sudden-victory” OT sessions and if no one scores, the game goes in the books as a draw.

That’s how this one would play out, as in the first overtime, Dickinson missed wide for Yarmouth and in the second extra session, the Clippers had a corner kick and Nicholas’ shot was blocked (Yarmouth clamored for a hand-ball and a penalty kick, but to no avail) and the game went in the books as a 1-1 tie.

“We had some chances, especially late,” Hagerty said. “Give Greely credit. They played a very good first half. We didn’t come with the energy when we needed it and they scored a nice goal. It’s the first time we’ve really been down. Overall, we didn’t play horribly. In two games, we held two of the best teams around to a total of five shots.”

The Clippers had a 13-3 shots advantage and took 11 corner kicks to Greely’s four. King made two saves.

“We hold teams to very few shots and Spencer played very well today,” Hagerty said.

Wetmore saved 12 shots for Greely.

“We both had chances,” Andreasen said. “Walking out of here with a tie is big for us.”

Postseason looms

Greely (currently third in the Class B South Heal Points standings) has four games left, at Lake Region Tuesday, at home versus York Thursday, then at Gray-New Gloucester and at York to close.

“We won’t go higher than three,” Andreasen said. “We’ve seen the top teams. It comes down to who plays the best. We’ll see what happens. We have a long way to go.”

Yarmouth (which was first by a narrow margin over Medomak Valley in Class B South at press time) goes to Gray-New Gloucester Tuesday, then closes with a tough assignment, at defending Class C champion Waynflete Thursday.

“I’m frustrated, but we need these games to get ready for the playoffs,” Hagerty said. “I don’t think we can fall out of 1 or 2. I think we’ll respond fine.”

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.