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BANGOR—When Rachel Williams returned to her alma mater, her goal was to restore Greely’s girls’ soccer program to greatness.
Saturday evening at Cameron Stadium, Williams and the Rangers achieved their goal.
Facing Hermon in the Class B state final, Greely carried play in the early going but had nothing to show for it.
Then, a half-hour into the contest, after a foul in the box, the Rangers were awarded a penalty kick and senior captain Molly Partridge converted it to give her team the lead for good.
With just 1:46 left in the half, Greely added a critical insurance goal, as senior standout Abby Lennox finished, from junior Samantha Santerre.
When Lennox struck again, two minutes into the second half, this time from junior Avery Bush, it looked like lights out on the Hawks, but they weren’t ready to roll over.
With 36 minutes to play, Hermon got on the board, courtesy a goal from junior Madison Stewart.
Seconds later, the Hawks appeared to score again, but the goal was waved off due to an offsides call and the Rangers had dodged a bullet.
They were able to run out the clock from there and win it, 3-1.
Greely finished just the second undefeated season in program history at 14-0-4, ended Hermon’s campaign at 15-3, won the Gold Ball for the first time in nine years and for the fifth time in program history.
“It’s so awesome,” said Williams, who also played for the Rangers (Class of 1992). “I lost a lot of championship games. I’m happy the girls got the feeling of winning it. I’ve been with these girls for four years and they’ve trusted me, believed in me, made changes I asked and they supported each other on and off the field.”
Leaving no doubt
Greely came into the 2024 season primed to end Yarmouth and Cape Elizabeth’s stranglehold on Class B South and the Rangers managed to be the last team standing.
Greely played the Clippers to one tie, then beat the two-time reigning champions in the rematch, settled for draws against the Capers both in Cape Elizabeth and Cumberland and played Hall-Dale to a tie as well, but won its other 10 contests.
After blanking No. 8 Wells (5-0) in the quarterfinals, the Rangers got a second half goal from junior Lily Pierce to end No. 5 Yarmouth’s title reign in the semifinals, 1-0. Wednesday, in the regional final in Fryeburg, Pierce scored both the tying goal and the winner in overtime as Greely edged No. 2 Cape Elizabeth in a thriller, 2-1, to advance.
“I couldn’t fall asleep that night,” Lennox said. “I was on such an adrenaline rush. We knew then we could do anything we put our minds to.”
Hermon, meanwhile, lost twice to Ellsworth during the regular season, but won every other contest.
After avenging those losses with a 3-0 quarterfinal round victory over seventh-ranked Ellsworth in the quarterfinals, the Hawks edged No. 11 Presque Isle (1-0) in the semifinals before rolling past No. 1 Medomak Valley (5-1) in the regional final Wednesday.
The Rangers were 4-5 all-time in state finals (see sidebar), while the Hawks had dropped all six previous results, including the teams’ only prior meeting, a 6-0 Greely victory in 2015.
Saturday, on a frigid evening (37 degrees at the start), the Rangers wouldn’t be denied, as they took the final step to the pinnacle.
Greely came out peppering Hermon sophomore goalkeeper Becca Belmas.
Belmas was able to save shots from Lennox, junior Avery Bush and Lennox again before junior Amelia Savoy fired a free kick high.
In the eighth minute, the Rangers nearly went on top, as another long Savoy free kick found the foot of a streaking Bush, but Bush was robbed point blank by Belmas.
After Lennox had a shot saved, Santerre missed wide and Pierce lofted a shot just high.
The Hawks then went on the attack, as a long free kick from junior Erin Selleck was headed out by a Greely back, a shot from freshman Payton Guerette was blocked and off a corner serve from junior Natalie Tardie, Rangers junior goalkeeper Lily Wawrzycki-Stein made the save.
But when it appeared Greely might be frustrated right into the halftime break, it was awarded a penalty kick after a foul in the box.
With 10:14 on the clock, Partridge confidently stepped to the line, then ripped a shot into the left corner, as Belmas couldn’t respond.
“I just took a deep breath,” said Partridge. “There was a lot of pressure, especially 0-0. I made one earlier in the season, so I knew I could do it again. It’s simple. I just wanted to put it away in the open net. I like to look at the corner I’m not going to. I knew the left corner worked for me. It’s the best feeling to score in a state game.”
“We’ve had a couple PKs that we’ve missed this year,’ Williams said. “Molly is composed and we told her to keep to simple. She was ready and dialed in.”
Hermon tried to answer, but Wawrzycki-Stein denied Tardie on a breakaway pass from senior Brooke Gallop, then she stopped a shot on the run from junior Tessa Ewer.
With 1:46 left before the break, Greely got a critical second goal, as Santerre fed Lennox, who beat Belmas with a shot to the upper left corner.
“I took the shot, hoped it went in and it did,” said Lennox. “It gave us momentum going into the second half. We needed that goal.”
The Rangers had an 8-2 advantage in shots on frame in the first half, but hadn’t been able to put the Hawks away.
Greely looked to do that immediately when the second half commenced and just 2 minutes, 10 seconds in, it seemingly ended the competitive phase of the contest, as Bush set up Lennox, who dribbled left in traffic, then scored to the left corner to make the score 3-0.
“The third goal was great,” said Lennox. “We said in the locker room at halftime that a two-lead is the worst lead, that’s a known fact. Scoring quickly carried the momentum.”
“Abby’s so skilled,” said Williams. “She scored a couple beautiful goals. It’s tough for her when other teams know her well. We try to move her around. We get creative and dynamic with her.”
But Hermon was far from finished.
After Guerette sent a free kick high, the Hawks broke through with 36:06 on the clock.
Off a throw from Gallop, the ball took a fortuitous bounce to Stewart, who dribbled in and shot the ball past Wawrzycki-Stein and into the left corner to cut the deficit to two.
A mere 38 seconds later, Gallop set up Tardie for a breakaway and when she finished, it appeared as if things had gotten most interesting, but in its biggest break of the night, Greely was able to exhale as offsides was the call and the goal was saved off.
“That was definitely a wakeup call for us,” said Partridge. “We just had to stay defensive.”
The Hawks kept pushing, but senior back Emma Silver blocked a shot from Tardie, then Tardie sent a beautiful cross to Stewart at the far post, but her one-timer was snared by a diving Wawrzycki-Stein.
After Tardie missed wide, Wawrzycki-Stein came out and was replaced by senior Lizzie Sproul.
With 13:44 remaining, Sproul went sprawling to deny Stewart.
With 10:25 left, Silver broke up a Tardie chance in the box.
Hermon didn’t muster another good scoring chance from there and the Rangers were able to run out the clock and at 7:28 p.m., celebrate their 3-1 victory and a state championship.
“I’m so glad we did it,” said Partridge. “It’s a surreal feeling for sure. It means a lot for us to do it together with the boys’ team as well senior year. We left it all on the field. We can go out being proud of what we did. We finally connected as a team. We believed in ourselves and had more confidence.”
“It comes back to preseason, all the work we put in,” Lennox said. “Molly and I have been on this team for four years. Reflecting on how far we’ve come, I’m very proud of what we accomplished. It doesn’t feel real, but I’m so happy it happened.”
“I think the girls trust each other and they trust us,” added Williams. “We get them to buy in. When a team works collectively for one goal, they’re more willing to be happy for their teammate and will keep at it. We had more depth than I realized and tonight, we needed that. Hermon had some great chances. We had some big mistakes, but our goalie came up huge. It was a very competitive game. That lead was not safe and I didn’t feel good about it. Our defense and midfield fixed the mistakes and got the ball wide.”
Greely finished with a 10-6 edge in shots on frame, got four saves from Wawrzycki-Stein, one from Sproul and had a 3-2 advantage in corner kicks.
Hermon got seven saves from Balmas.
First of many
The Rangers graduate big-time contributors like Lennox, Partridge, Silver and Sproul, as well as Cece Berthiaume, Alison Cook, Tacie Dougan, Jackie Franklin, Alison Goldburg, Caroline Hanson and Eve Hein.
There’s some elite talent returning as well, including big-game scorer Pierce, Bush, Santerre, Savoy and Wawrzycki-Stein.
Greely is poised to make another championship run in 2025.
“I’m so excited to see the team next year,” said Lennox, who will play next year at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. “I’ll come to as many games as I can and livestream as many games as I can.”
“We’re excited for the seniors to move on and do great things in life,” said Williams. “We’re excited for some of the players who were sitting on the bench to pop up and contribute. They’d be starters on other teams in our conference. We’re excited to get them playing.”
