York returns to state game with victory over Poland in B South final

Poland goalie Ashton Stutervant, right and teammate Madison Wante, center, can not stop York’s Barbara Conradt from redirecting a shot into the net for a goal during Tuesday afternoon’s ClassB Southern Maine Regional Field Hockey Finals. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

SACO — This new version of York is doing the same old York-like things.

The Wildcats advanced to the Class B state championship by defeating the Poland Knights 3-1 in the B South title game at Thornton Academy on Tuesday.

York is the three-time defending state champ and was participating in its 12th regional championship in the past 14 seasons. But the most recent of those accomplishments were spearheaded by Lily Posternak, now playing at Duke University, and an eight-player Class of 2017.

Gone are those seniors, and ended at 58 games earlier this season was the winning streak they helped start.

But, here in the state championship game, once again, are the York Wildcats.

“I’m so happy for them,” York coach Barb Marois said, “because I think there was a lot connected to the seniors that left last year. So when you lose all those, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if you’ll make it back.’ And I’m sure these girls wanted to say, ‘Well, we might. We can do this.’

“I knew they could do it, but you just don’t know how a season’s going to go. And when it’s crunch time and the pressure kind of amps up, you don’t know how they’re going to handle it, but I think they handled it great today. I’m really proud of them.”

The Knights’ defense stood strong at the start of the game. The Wildcats broke through with 16:42 remaining in the first half when Sydney Bouchard scored off an assist by Jessa Smith and Emlyn Patry.

“Scoring first certainly helps to ease everybody in,” Marios said.

Barbara Conradt made it 2-0 seven minutes later.

Bouchard added another goal eight minutes into the second half.

That one caused a few Poland players to fall to turf, dejected. But the Knights upped their attack, and with 11:36 to play in the game, Autumn Willis scored to make it 3-1.

“I think it gave us some confidence,” Poland senior Morgan Brousseau said. “We needed something to tell us that it wasn’t over yet, and to dig a little deeper. And I think the second half, after that goal, was a lot better, a lot stronger.”

Poland continued to attack, but couldn’t get any closer.

“We knew that York was strong,” Brousseau said, “and we were coming in and we didn’t want to be nervous and we wanted to play Poland field hockey, and no matter what happened, I’m proud of them.”

While York was trying to prove that it is still York, Poland was in uncharted territory, making its first regional final appearance.

“I’m really proud of them,” coach Kayla Royer said. “There’s really not else more I can say other than that. There’s no other team I’d rather be coaching than the Poland Knights. They show heart, they show character. In times of victory, in times of despair, they respect themselves, they respect their opponents, most importantly they respect the game. And they showed that today.”

York will face MCI in the Class B state championship game Saturday.

Poland goalie Ashton Stutervant, right, stomps out a shot by York’s Sydney Bouchard during Tuesday afternoon’s ClassB Southern Maine Regional Field Hockey Finals. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

Poland’s Olivia Bell, left, battles with York’s Caroline Leal, center and Audrey Grimes for the ball during Tuesday’s playoff game. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)