CAPE ELIZABETH—If there was any remaining doubt, Cape Elizabeth’s boys’ soccer team let everyone know Tuesday evening at Hannaford Field that it is one of the best teams around.
Perhaps the best.
Hosting longtime nemesis Yarmouth, the two-time reigning Class B state champion, in a battle of teams riding eight-game win streaks, the Capers made an immediate statement and went on to a pivotal victory.
Which could play huge dividends down the road.
In the game’s fifth minute, senior Sebastian Moon served in a corner kick and junior Sam Cochran headed it home for the only goal Cape Elizabeth would need.
Early in the second half, the Clippers threatened to answer, but Capers senior goalkeeper Dimitri Coupe stood tall to preserve the lead.
With 31:52 to play, senior Eddie Caldera finished to double the lead and Moon produced the dagger with 4:21 left as Cape Elizabeth went on to an impressive 3-0 victory.
The Capers made it nine straight victories, improved to 9-0-1, took over the top spot in the Class B South Heal Points standings, dropped Yarmouth to 8-1-1 and in the process, snapped the Clippers’ 31-game unbeaten streak and beat them in Cape Elizabeth for the first time since 2008.
“This is very encouraging,” said longtime Capers coach Ben Raymond. “Anytime we can score three goals against a quality team and not give up any goals against one of the top teams in the state, we have to feel very good about that. The guys worked really hard the entire game.”
A lot at stake
Cape Elizabeth and Yarmouth were the last two teams standing in Class B South a year ago and it’s quite possible the Capers and Clippers, who opened the season by battling to a 1-1 draw in Yarmouth, will be battling it out in the regional final again this fall.
The Capers had won eight straight coming in, defeating visiting Greely (4-0) and Wells (10-1), host York (3-1), host Freeport (3-0), host and three-time reigning Class C champion Waynflete (2-1), host Lake Region (5-0), host Poland (12-1) and visiting Fryeburg Academy (2-1, in overtime, Saturday).
As for the Clippers, they followed up their season-opening tie with eight straight wins of their own, beating host Freeport after a late rally (2-1), then blanking visiting York (5-0), edging visiting North Yarmouth Academy (2-1), winning at Greely (2-1), at Poland (6-0), at home over Fryeburg Academy (4-0) and Wells (7-0), then downing host Gray-New Gloucester (8-0).
In the teams’ first meeting, Caldera scored for the Capers, while junior Zach Kelly produced the Clippers’ goal.
Last season, Yarmouth won both regular season meetings by a 2-0 score, then held on for a 2-1 triumph in the Class B South Final en route to the Gold Ball.
Entering play Tuesday, Yarmouth was 22-1-1 against the Capers in the teams’ past 24 meetings (see sidebar below), but the one Cape Elizabeth victory was seismic, a 2-1 upset in the 2018 Class B South semifinals, which ended the Clippers’ four-year title reign and their 45-game unbeaten streak.
Tuesday, in front of a large and vocal crowd, with Heal Points and playoff positioning hanging in the balance, Yarmouth looked to continue its dominance in the series, but instead, Cape Elizabeth earned its first regular season win over the Clippers since Sept. 2, 2011 (2-1 in Yarmouth) and its first on its home turf over the Clippers since Oct. 4, 2008 (3-1).
Yarmouth had the game’s first look, two minutes in, but junior Zach Turkel’s long bid sailed wide.
The Capers then earned a corner kick and with 35:34 left in the first half, Moon served the ball in front where Cochran was waiting to head it past Clippers’ junior goalkeeper Ian O’Connor for a quick 1-0 lead.
“It was a great ball,” Cochran said. “Even if I wasn’t there, it still would have gone in. I was in the right place at the right time. I flicked it off my forehead.”
“We’ve been working on our corner plays,” said Moon. “That was one of the best balls I’ve hit.”
“That was a great way to start the game,” Raymond added. “It energized the kids and gave them the confidence they needed. It made them know they could play with (Yarmouth).”
Yarmouth tried to answer, but Coupe beat sophomore Zacarias Binda to junior Adam McLaughlin’s through ball and McLaughlin had a long shot saved by Coupe.
In the 15th minute, Clippers senior captain Liam Hickey launched a free kick from 35 yards out which Coupe had to go to his knees to bobble and save.
Junior Matt Gautreau then tried to tie it up in the 19th minute, but his low blast was juggled and saved by Coupe.
In the 21st minute, the Capers almost went up by two, when Caldera pounced on a turnover and fired with his left foot, but O’Connor went to his knees to make the save and he dove on the rebound.
But on the play, disaster struck for the Clippers, as Hickey went down with a leg injury, stayed down and after several minutes, was carried off the field.
Hickey wouldn’t return and his long-term status is unknown.
“I hope he’s OK,” said longtime Yarmouth coach Mike Hagerty, who is also Hickey’s uncle. “He’s had some hip stuff going on. He strikes the ball with such force and whip. I hope it’s just muscular and he’ll be back. Liam is as tough as they come and he does so many things for our team.”
Late in the half, junior Luis Cardoso looked to equalize, but Coupe made the save and the score remained 1-0 at halftime.
Yarmouth had a 4-3 edge in shots on frame, but found itself behind, something which doesn’t happen often.
Then, off the second half kickoff, the Clippers had a great chance to tie the game, as senior Wyatt Anderson went one-on-one with Coupe, but Coupe made the point-blank save.
“We ran our kickoff play, Wyatt took the ball out of the air with a beautiful first touch and hit it from 15 yards away, but he hit it right at the goalie,” Hagerty lamented.
Moments later, senior Truman Peters set up Binda for a great chance, but again, Coupe stood tall.
“Shoutout to Dimitri today,” Moon said. “He made the saves he needed to make.”
“Dimitri made some good saves and that gave us confidence we could give up shots because he’d be there,” Raymond said.
With 31:52 to play, Cape Elizabeth got some breathing room, as Caldera got to a deflected ball, found some space, then fired a low shot with his left foot past a diving O’Connor to make it 2-0.
“Last year, we went up on them in the regional final and we sat back,” Cochran said. “This time, at halftime, we talked about staying ahead and let the chances come to us.”
“We’re just getting more confident holding on to the ball in tight situations,” said Raymond. “We needed to continue to possess and push and get chances. When we did that, we created great opportunities and got them on their back foot a little bit. That kept them from being dangerous too. Our goal wasn’t to hang on, but to continue to press.”
“They pressured us into a mis-clear, then we missed a header and the kid buried it,” Hagerty lamented. “Good teams will punish you for mistakes and we made two big mistakes there. That second goal was a heartbreaker.”
After O’Connor saved a one-timer from senior Andrew Trachimowicz, junior Keegan Lathrop missed wide, then O’Connor denied a Lathrop shot with a dive, Yarmouth tried to rally.
First, Binda had a low shot save by Coupe. Cardoso was then denied as well and Gautreau shot wide.
With 4:50 left, Peters sent a nice cross in front to senior Owen Redfield for a shot, but Coupe stopped that one as well.
The Capers then countered and ended any lingering doubt, as the ball was played ahead to Moon, who fought through a defender, had an initial shot saved by O’Connor before pouncing on the rebound and sending the ball into the net.
“I got a long ball and it was deflected and popped out to me and I put it away,” Moon said. “That was a great feeling. Nothing better than I could ask for.”
“Sebastian had a great game,” Raymond said. “The guys up front found themselves with more chances in the second half because (Yarmouth) had to press more. Seb puts himself in great spots to be dangerous. The guys look for him quite a bit. He’s good one-v-one with the ball at his feet and he loves to attack.”
One final look from McLaughlin was saved by Coupe and at 7:45 p.m., Cape Elizabeth was at last able to celebrate its 3-0 victory.
“It’s my first win over Yarmouth in my high school career, “Cochran said. “It feels really good. It really stung last year. I hated seeing Tiernan (Lathrop) crying after that game. We’re a different team this year. We’re dangerous, that’s all I can say. We’re going to see Yarmouth again, it’s inevitable. They’re a great team and we’ll just have to do the same thing we did tonight, let it come to us.”
“This shows how far we’ve come,” Moon said. “It wasn’t easy to hold them off, but our main objective was to not let them score and when our chances came, we’d put them away.”
“I don’t know if the scoreboard really tells the story anytime we play,” added Raymond. “They’re really well-played, competitive games. Both teams work really, really hard. I thought both teams competed really well and really fairly tonight. At times, we were kind of holding on a little bit. At times, we moved the ball really well and had a ton of possession and did what we wanted to do.”
The Capers had an 11-10 edge in shots on frame, got 10 saves from Coupe and took five corner kicks to the Clippers’ one.
Yarmouth got eight saves from O’Connor and had some great chances, but went home with nothing to show for it.
“Overall, what a great soccer game,” Hagerty said. “Pretty even. I don’t think we played badly. Our effort was pretty good, but we just couldn’t score. We had great chances, but we hit them right at the goalie. I’d rather lose 3-0 trying to tie it up than sit back. That game could have easily been 1-1, 2-2. I’m happy with our effort. I thought both teams played a very good game and I think it was a pretty even game.”
Finishing kick
Yarmouth has a challenging schedule to finish the regular season, hosting Freeport Saturday, then going to York and welcoming Greely before ending with a delicious showdown at Waynflete.
“The good news is this will help us gain focus,” Hagerty said. “We needed a little bit of a wakeup call. It’s humbling and it will sharpen our focus on the little things we need to do better. I’m confident the guys will respond. We need to do simple things. We have to be better and clean up our mistakes.
“I hope we see (Cape) again. We’ve played two good games and I’d like to get a third one.”
Cape Elizabeth is back in action Saturday at Greely. The Capers will be at Gray-New Gloucester next Tuesday, then closes with home games versus York and Freeport.
“This raises our confidence,” Moon said. “We have some big games coming up. I think we can keep showing we’re one of the best teams.”
“Greely is really dangerous on the grass,” said Raymond. “Greely and Freeport both have dangerous players and they’re hard to play against. As long as we keep competing, we’ll be in every game we play.”
Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.
Recent Cape Elizabeth-Yarmouth results
2021
Yarmouth 2 @ Cape Elizabeth 0
@ Yarmouth 2 Cape Elizabeth 0
Class B South Final
Yarmouth 2 Cape Elizabeth 1
2020
Yarmouth 4 @ Cape Elizabeth 0
2019
Yarmouth 1 @ Cape Elizabeth 0
@ Yarmouth 3 Cape Elizabeth 0
2018
@ Yarmouth 2 Cape Elizabeth 1
Yarmouth 1 @ Cape Elizabeth 0
Class B South semifinals
Cape Elizabeth 2 @ Yarmouth 1
2017
@ Yarmouth 2 Cape Elizabeth 1
Yarmouth 2 @ Cape Elizabeth 1
2016
@ Yarmouth 1 Cape Elizabeth 0
Yarmouth 3 @ Cape Elizabeth 2
2015
@ Yarmouth 4 Cape Elizabeth 0
Yarmouth 5 @ Cape Elizabeth 1
Class B South quarterfinal
@ Yarmouth 2 Cape Elizabeth 0
2014
@ Yarmouth 5 Cape Elizabeth 3
Yarmouth 2 @ Cape Elizabeth 1
2013
Yarmouth 1 @ Cape Elizabeth 0 (OT)
@ Yarmouth 3 Cape Elizabeth 3 (tie)
Western B semifinals
@ Yarmouth 5 Cape Elizabeth 0
2012
@ Yarmouth 4 Cape Elizabeth 1
Yarmouth 2 @ Cape Elizabeth 1
Cape Elizabeth 2 @ Yarmouth 1
Yarmouth 1 @ Cape Elizabeth 0
2010
@ Cape Elizabeth 1 Yarmouth 1 (tie)
@ Yarmouth 3 Cape Elizabeth 1
2009
@ Yarmouth 2 Cape Elizabeth 1
@ Cape Elizabeth 2 Yarmouth 2 (tie)
2008
@ Yarmouth 0 Cape Elizabeth 0 (tie)
@ Cape Elizabeth 3 Yarmouth 1
2007
@ Yarmouth 1 Cape Elizabeth 1 (tie)
@ Cape Elizabeth 3 Yarmouth 1
2006
@ Yarmouth 2 Cape Elizabeth 0
Yarmouth 2 @ Cape Elizabeth 0
Yarmouth 1 @ Cape Elizabeth 0
@ Yarmouth 0 Cape Elizabeth 0 (tie)
2004
Yarmouth 1 @ Cape Elizabeth 0
2003
Cape Elizabeth 1 @ Yarmouth 0
2002
@ Cape Elizabeth 0 Yarmouth 0 (tie)
2001
@ Yarmouth 1 Cape Elizabeth 0
@ Cape Elizabeth 2 Yarmouth 1
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