Standout hits milestone in Yarmouth’s win at Waynflete

BOX SCORE

Yarmouth 18 Waynflete 6

Y- 11 7- 18
W- 2 4- 6

First half
24:50 Y D’Appolonia (unassisted)
23:15 Y Keaney (Powers)
22:50 Y Powers (Walsh)
22:11 Y Powers (free position)
21:10 Y D’Appolonia (Panozzo)
19:09 Y D’Appolonia (free position)
18:44 Y D’Appolonia (Powers)
15:27 Y D’Appolonia (unassisted)
11:58 Y D’Appolonia (free position)
9:18 W Kelly (unassisted)
8:48 Y Panozzo (free position)
6:51 Y Powers (free position)
4:03 W Melnick (free position)

Second half
23:41 Y Keaney (D’Appolonia)
22:32 Y Keaney (unassisted)
21:19 Y D’Appolonia (Walsh)
20:12 Y Jones (D’Appolonia)
16:42 W Kelly (unassisted)
15:06 W Kramer (unassisted)
11:26 Y Kendeigh (Powers)
10:09 W Kelly (free position)
8:14 W Melnick (Kelly)
4:05 Y D’Appolonia (free position)
:35 Y Boone (free position)

Goals:
Y- D’Appolonia 8, Keaney, Powers 3, Boone, Jones, Kendeigh, Panozzo 1
W- Kelly 3, Melnick 2, Kramer 1

Assists:
Y- Powers 3, D’Appolonia, Walsh 2, Panozzo 1
W- Kelly 1

Draws (Yarmouth, 15-10)
Y- Powers 12 of 15, Keaney 3 of 8, Carnes 0 of 2
W- Kelly 9 of 18, Earls 1 of 7

Ground balls:
Y- 38
W- 30

Turnovers
Y- 14
W- 19

Shots:
Y- 28
W- 11

Shots on cage:
Y- 22
W- 9

Saves:
Y (Sullivan) 3
W (Girard) 4

PORTLAND—When she was in eighth grade, Katelyn D’Appolonia promised to break her sister’s soccer scoring records.

But when she entered high school, lacrosse became her top love.

Much to the relief and appreciation of the Yarmouth Clippers.

That’s because D’Appolonia has gone on to score a lot of goals, including a milestone tally Saturday morning against reigning Class C state champion Waynflete at Fore River Fields.

Just 10 seconds into a game between the state’s two most storied programs, D’Appolonia scored her 100th career goal.

And she was far from finished.

By the time the contest was 13 minutes old, D’Appolonia had six goals and the Clippers raced to a 9-0 lead over the injury-plagued Flyers.

Yarmouth took an 11-2 advantage to the half and while Waynflete kept things interesting in the second half, the Clippers pulled away for an 18-6 victory.

D’Appolonia, who will play at the University of Colorado in Boulder next year, scored a career-high eight goals, added a pair of assists and helped Yarmouth win its fifth straight game, improve to 7-3 and drop the Flyers to 5-4 in the process.

“I know what Katelyn is most proud of is her assists,” said longtime Clippers coach Dorothy Holt. “Katelyn is a true team player. This is a huge tribute to her in all her sports because she’s a true three-sport athlete.”

Bright and early

Waynflete and Yarmouth both enjoyed dream seasons a year ago, seasons which ended which championship celebrations on the Fitzpatrick Stadium turf.

This spring, both squads have had different challenges to deal with.

The Clippers graduated a ton of talent from last year’s team, moved up to Class A and started the season with D’Appolonia nowhere near 100 percent, but they’ve steadily improved and appear to be peaking as the playoffs beckon.

Yarmouth started with an impressive 13-4 home win over Windham and after falling at reigning Class A North champion Falmouth, 10-8, beat host Cape Elizabeth, 12-5. Home losses to reigning Class A champion Kennebunk (11-3) and Greely (13-7) followed before the Clippers hit their stride, winning at Scarborough (16-8), at home over Oxford Hills (15-5), at home over York (18-8) and Wednesday at Greely, 16-13.

The Flyers, meanwhile, brought a lot of talent back and appeared to be a favorite to repeat in Class C, but injuries have been cruel to the defending champs, as senior standout Jesse Connors, who was in line for a prolific season, broke her ankle last week, COVID has forced several players to miss games and earlier this week, senior Lolie Millspaugh, another key team member, suffered a broken nose and will be sidelined the rest of the regular season. Senior Cece Marshall and junior Keegan Dolan were also unavailable Saturday.

Waynflete opened with a tough loss, 10-9, in overtime, at North Yarmouth Academy, then the Flyers hit their stride, downing host Lake Region (7-5), visiting Wells (11-10), Traip Academy (15-6) and Portland (16-1). After a 12-4 loss at Greely, the game where Connors suffered her ankle injury, Waynflete lost at home to Freeport in a state game rematch, 6-4, before bouncing back Wednesday with a 10-5 victory at Gray-New Gloucester/Poland.

Last year, the host Flyers gave the Clippers a close game before Yarmouth pulled out an 8-5 victory.

Saturday, in a game that started at 9:30 a.m., Waynflete sought its first win over the Clippers since the 2013 Class B state final (7-4), but Yarmouth was able to make it nine straight in the series (see sidebar, below).

After sophomore standout Aine Powers won the opening draw, D’Appolonia wasted no time and raced right in and beat Flyers senior goalie Emily Girard for goal number 100, becoming the sixth Clippers to reach that mark (see sidebar).

“It’s an exciting accomplishment,” D’Appolonia said. “This is really great for me. I was ready for it. All my teammates were excited for me. They were waiting for me to get it and were encouraging me to do it.”

Yarmouth senior Katelyn D’Appolonia is mobbed by her teammates after scoring the first goal of Saturday’s 18-6 win at Waynflete, a goal that was the 100th of her career. Hoffer photos.

D’Appolonia who has also starred in soccer and basketball in high school, has followed in the accomplished athletic footsteps of her parents, Seb and Chris, and her older siblings, Sara and John.

In November of 2018, after the Yarmouth girls’ soccer team enjoyed the most lopsided state game victory in state history, Katelyn crashed the postgame interview of Sara, the Clippers’ all-time leading scorer, and announced to a reporter, “Hi, my name is Katelyn, and I’m going break all of Sara’s records.”

“My Dad made me say that,” D’Appolonia recalls.

Her first high school lacrosse season, which saw the Clippers drop an agonizing overtime decision to Cape Elizabeth in the Class B state final, became the year she truly fell in love with the sport.

“Freshman year, I came in not really having a huge passion for lacrosse, but that year, I really got into it,” D’Appolonia said. “Dorothy introduced me to some awesome players and awesome coaching.”

After her sophomore season was wiped out by COVID, D’Appolonia played a major role in Yarmouth’s title run last spring, but a lingering shoulder injury from basketball season limited her at the start of the 2022 campaign.

She’s clearly 100 percent now.

“(Katelyn) missed a whole season, so it’s incredible for her to reach 100 goals,” Holt said. “She’s a huge part of this team, a leader on and off the field. As a coach, in your career, you only get to coach players like (Katelyn) not very often. I’ve been blessed with some truly gifted athletes.”

After D’Appolonia hit the crossbar, Powers set up sophomore Lauren Keaney for a 2-0 lead with 23:15 to go in the first half.

A mere 25 seconds later, Powers scored for the first time, with senior Clancy Walsh getting the assist. Powers then tickled the twine again, on a free position with 22:11 remaining.

D’Appolonia then scored five straight goals, in under 10 minutes.

The first came from sophomore Neena Panozzo and the second came on a free position, making it 6-0 and forcing longtime Waynflete coach Cathie Connors to call timeout.

It didn’t help, as Powers set up D’Appolonia for a goal with 18:44 to play, D’Appolonia scored unassisted with 15:27 on the clock, then scored on a free position with 11:58 to go in the half, extending the lead to 9-0.

After Keaney hit the crossbar, the Flyers got on the board with 9:18 remaining, as promising sophomore Tilsley Kelly scored her first goal, unassisted.

Panozzo and Powers answered with free position goals before sophomore Sasha Melnick scored on a free position with 4:03 to go to make the score 11-2 at halftime.

In the first half, Powers won 11 of 14 draws and Yarmouth enjoyed an 18-3 shots advantage.

Waynflete senior Vera Shattuck races up the field as Yarmouth senior Katelyn D’Appolonia gives chase.

The Clippers then induced a mercy-rule, 10-goal running clock when D’Appolonia set up Keaney for a goal 79 seconds into the second half.

Keaney added another goal with 22:32 left, then D’Appolonia scored for the seventh time (from Walsh) and D’Appolonia set up freshman Maddie Jones for her first career goal with 20:12 to play, making it 15-2.

Waynflete then roared back, as Kelly scored unassisted with 16:49 remaining, freshman Leah Kramer scored her first career goal after a long run with 15:06 left and after senior Tori Kendeigh answered for Yarmouth, Kelly converted a free position with 10:09 to go and Melnick finished a feed from Kelly with 8:14 left to cut the deficit to 16-6.

The Clippers then put it away late, as D’Appolonia reached a career high with her eighth goal, on a free position with 4:05 on the clock, and sophomore Brooke Boone added another free position goal with 35 seconds to play, bringing the curtain down on Yarmouth’s 18-6 triumph.

“It’s an early morning and we were a little tired, but we picked up our energy and played how we play,” said D’Appolonia. “We connected well. There’s a lot of teamwork that goes into how we play. Our passing and assisting and encouraging each other on the little things is very important. Getting the experience playing in a game is really important for the players who come up.”

“This was good for us,” Holt said. “You can’t replicate game experience and we got a lot of kids in. It’s a rivalry game for us and we don’t take (Waynflete) lightly. They have the best coach in the state.”

D’Appolonia stole the show with her eight goals, two assists and she also had a game-high dozen ground balls.

In case there was any doubt, Katelyn D’Appolonia shows off her accomplishment following the win.

Keaney and Powers each added three goals, while Boone, Jones, Kendeigh and Panozzo had one apiece.

Powers also had three assists, while Walsh had two and Panozzo added one.

Sophomore goalie Regan Sullivan made four saves.

The Clippers had a 15-10 edge in draws, a 38-30 ground ball advantage, a commanding 28-11 edge in shots (22-9 on cage) and only turned the ball over 14 times.

For Waynflete, Kelly had three goals and one assists, while Melnick added two goals and Kramer scored once.

Girard made three saves.

Sophomore Morgan Earls had a team-high six ground balls.

“I’m very proud of the effort and proud of the fact we worked on what we needed to work on,” Cathie Connors said. “We have so many girls in different places, so we looked at it as getting the practice we needed. We did really well. It was a good experience. We wouldn’t have gotten that out of a practice.”

Finishing up

Waynflete (currently sixth in the Class C state Heal Points standings) has three games left, at home versus St. Dom’s Tuesday and Lake Region Friday, then at York June 1.

“Everyone will take a piece of what they wanted to work on today and will take it from here and work on it Monday,” Cathie Connors said. “We want to finish as strong as possible and get our defense even more solid.”

Yarmouth (second in Class A North), is back in action at home against Cape Elizabeth, then closes at Lake Region May 31.

Then, the Clippers will look to end Falmouth’s three-year reign atop Class A North.

“We’ve stepped it up a lot since the beginning of the season,” D’Appolonia said. “We’re ready for the postseason. We sort of came in as an underdog this year with a totally new team pretty much, but we’ve really showed everybody what we’ve got.”

“The girls have come a long way since we played Falmouth and Kennebunk,” Holt said. “We’ll have a big test next week with Cape and we still have a lot of work to do. We’d love homefield (advantage), but home, away, whatever, we just have to be ready.”