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FALMOUTH — Denver Bachman and his Scarborough High boys soccer teammates had already erased the sting of giving up an early goal to Falmouth and had come out firing in the second half.

So when Bachman got control of the ball near midfield with space and with teammate Khalil Ghosheh also charging forward, he knew a goal-scoring chance was about to come.

“I saw Khalil running behind me and I just played it to him and continued my run, and he played me a great ball,” Bachman said. “As soon as I hit it, I saw it dip over the keeper and I knew it was in and I was ecstatic.”

Bachman’s goal in the 50th minute stood up as the winner in the Red Storm’s 2-1 victory in the Class A South final on Tuesday in Falmouth. The win sends unbeaten Scarborough (17-0) to the state championship game for the second straight year and third time in the past four years. The Red Storm will meet Brunswick (14-2-1), which defeated defending state champion Camden Hills in the North final in penalty kicks, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Messalonskee High in Oakland.

Scarborough will look for its first state title since 2013, when it beat Hampden Academy. Since then, the Red Storm have lost in the final in 2015 to Lewiston, in 2022 to Brunswick, and last year in penalty kicks to Camden Hills.

Falmouth (14-3) struck first in the 20th minute when Charlie Creswell’s free kick went through the Scarborough wall and beat keeper Reed Thurrell (seven saves) to the left side of the net.

The Red Storm knotted the score with 46 seconds to play in the first half on a Connor Casey penalty kick after a Scarborough player was taken down in the box. Casey did a stutter step on his approach, getting Falmouth keeper Caden Berry (four saves) to commit to his left, and then looped a shot to Berry’s right.

“It was definitely big for momentum,” said Casey, one of Scarborough’s eight senior starters. “Then we got an opportunity and I knew I needed to make it.”

While the PK gave Scarborough momentum — “It definitely relaxed us,” said Scarborough coach Mark Diaz — it had the opposite effect on Falmouth, said Navigators coach David Halligan.

“We were controlling the game, up by a goal, they have to come out and press it to try to get the equalizer,” Halligan said. “That didn’t decide the game. They’re a good team, they earned that. That’s why they’re undefeated.”

The two head coaches have combined to win 920 games in Maine high school soccer. Halligan is third all-time with 538 wins, 79 in eight seasons at Cape Elizabeth before taking over at Falmouth in 1987 and winning 12 state championships, the most recent in 2019, beating Lewiston, 5-2. Diaz is seventh on Maine’s all-time list with 382 wins and has won six state tiles.

“Any time you beat any team coached by Dave, you know you’ve accomplished something because you know his teams are prepared and you know they’re going to be good and you know they’re going to be tough,” Diaz said.

“It goes the same way,” Halligan said. “These games are so much more fun than some of the others where there are blowouts and big scores. If you’re a competitor, you want to play in games like this.”