SCARBOROUGH — Tears and smiles.

It sounds like the strangest of combinations.

Perhaps. But there were plenty of both to be found among the Thornton Academy girls soccer squad, after having lost the Maine Class A state championship tilt to Brunswick, 3-1, Saturday at the Kippy Mitchell Athletic Complex.

After all, the Golden Trojans had just completed the most successful girls soccer season in school history, but on a losing note.

It left Thornton with a bittersweet taste,

“Definitely,” said junior defender Lauren Titus. “We worked really hard. And we wanted it. But they’re a great team. They came to play. We definitely came to play. It just happened in their favor.”

Thornton senior co-captain and midfielder Jill Lambert was in agreement.

“It’s nice that we at least got here,” she said. “We weren’t even seen to be in the finals. We’d never been here.”

For a while, Thornton seemed to be destined for a happier outcome.

Jackie Costello gave the Trojans a 1-0 lead, when, at 3:28, she broke through the middle, bounced off Dragons defender Taylor Caron, then zipped a 15 yarder into the lower right corner.

However, Thornton only got to enjoy the lead for eight minutes.

Following a Brunswick throw in deep in the Trojans end, Rebekka Miller of the Dragons found her self face to face with netminder Sydney Proctor, and from less than five yards out, netted the tying goal.

“It was nice to get the lead for a little bit,” said Lambert. “But when we got behind, we just kept our heads up and thought we’d plug another one in.”

Instead, it was the Dragons (18-0), who took the lead, when, at 26:41, Alison Watson pounced on a goal mouth deflection and parked the first of her two goals.

“(She) is an amazing player,” said Titus.

Thornton dodged a bullet late in the half, when a would be Dragons goal was whistled offside.

However, with nine minutes gone in the second half, Watson put the game out of reach with her second goal, which came on a transition just after a Thornton foray had been stopped at the other end.

Brunswick, which had won one playoff game with 13 seconds left, then another in double overtime, was able to stroll home with the Gold Ball.

“We were all in it together,” said Lambert. “And we were going to end it together.”

Having come up short this time around, Titus was already thinking about a rematch with the Dragons.

“Hopefully we’ll see them again, next year,” said Titus. “And hopefully bring back the Gold Ball.”

— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.