Yarmouth senior Annie Lowenstein remained quiet through much of the first half of the Class B girls’ lacrosse state championship game on Saturday morning.
Well into the second half, however, upstart Greely had rallied to within one of the top-seeded Clippers, and Lowenstein took charge. She won a draw, drew a foul and scored from free position to open up enough breathing room that Yarmouth was able to reassert control.
The result was a 13-8 victory that gave Yarmouth (14-1) its sixth state title and snapped an extended run of championship frustration at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium, where the Clippers had fallen short by a total of five goals in four years.
Lowenstein’s goal gave Yarmouth a 9-7 advantage and was the 100th of her high school career. Katelyn D’Appolonia, a junior, followed two minutes later with another from free position to make it a three-goal margin.
Greely’s response – a point-blank shot from Elsa Dean-Muncie – struck the goal post. Over the remaining 12 minutes, Yarmouth dominated possession. D’Appolonia added two goals to finish with four. Senior Natalie Teare scored her second, assisted by D’Appolonia, to make it 13-7.
Sam Goldburg (three goals) got one back for Greely (12-4) with 4:34 remaining, but the Clippers played keep-away the rest of the game.
“Every single person on this team is a threat,” said Lowenstein, who also scored from free position after Greely had pulled within 7-6. “Face-guarding one of us or holding one of us to a tighter defender, it’s not going to stop our entire team because everyone on this team is a shooter, is a ball-handler and is a team player.”
Indeed, Yarmouth freshman Aine Powers took advantage of the focus on Lowenstein by scoring four first-half goals. Teare scored twice and sophomore Annie Bergeron once.
“There’s always nerves walking onto this field just because it’s such a big game,” said Yarmouth senior Anna Thornton, who assisted on goals by Powers and D’Appolonia. “But this team, we were so confident in our abilities and that we could get the job done. We were ready to celebrate this win because we’ve lost before.”
Greely was appearing in the state title game for the first time since 2000. The Rangers had lost twice to Yarmouth this spring, 13-6 in early May and 11-9 in late May.
“I thought we played well with them for about 80 percent (of the game),” Greely Coach Becca Koelker said. “The biggest difference was that they took care of the little things better than we did. We had a few too many turnovers, we gave them too many opportunities. And once they got the ball, they took care of it.”
Draws were roughly even (12-11 for Yarmouth), and the Rangers turned it over 16 times to Yarmouth’s 12. Juliet Meas made seven saves for Yarmouth and Hannah Perfetti had five for Greely. Yarmouth held a 25-18 advantage in shots.
In addition to Goldburg’s three goals, Dean-Muncie had two and senior Abby Taylor and sophomores Lauren Dennen and Charlotte Taylor added one each.
“On paper, we’re exactly the same,” Yarmouth Coach Dorothy Holt said. “We play the same way. So we expected it to be a really hard game, and even though we’ve been here before, we came in kind of feeling like we’re the underdogs because we knew we had to work.”
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