Despite controlling most of their draws, the Maranacook/Winthrop Hawks lost possession in the moments following those faceoff wins with more regularity than they’d care to admit. More than a few of those missed possessions turned into Yarmouth goals as the No. 4 Clippers toppled the No. 1 Hawks, 10-7, in their Eastern Class B semifinal at Kents Hill School on Saturday afternoon.

“Little mistakes,” Maranacook/Winthrop coach Zach Stewart said. “Little mistakes killed us … We’re going to have penalties. We’ll work through them, but it was the little mistakes that hurt us. And they didn’t have those little mistakes.”

The Hawks, only four years removed from being a junior varsity-only program, completed a meteoric rise in Eastern B this season, finishing unbeaten to claim the top seed. They passed another milestone in the quarterfinals when they defeated North Yarmouth Academy, a perennial state title contender.

“We were able to accomplish a lot,” Stewart, in his second year with the program, said. “We have a lot of potential in this program … I’m disappointed that we lost, but we’re going to come back bigger and stronger.”

But another regular contender, Yarmouth gave Maranacook/Winthrop nothing Saturday.

“We knew we had our work cut out for us,” Yarmouth coach David Pearl said. “We were glad to get out to a good start.”

Both teams shot out of the gate in the contest. Anyone arriving to the field more than a minute late missed a pair of goals — one each for the Hawks’ Toby Smith and Clippers’ Isaac Dearden.

That fast pace continued for a while, as well. Zach Glazier made it 2-1 Maranacook/Winthrop 2:56 into the game, and Yarmouth’s Max Watson responded in kind at 4:03 for a 2-2 tie.

Joe Oliva put the Clippers in front for the first time at the 5:24 mark of the first quarter, a 3-2 lead that only grew from there for the visiting Clippers.

“We pressure the ball really well, and that was one of the differences in this game,” Pearl said.

Brendan Dioli netted the lone goal of the second quarter as the teams settled in, giving Yarmouth a 4-2 halftime advantage.

Yarmouth doubled its lead in the third. Four different Clippers — Dioli, Dearden, Oliva and Kyle Thomas — lit the lamp. Smith added two more for the Hawks, who struggled to keep pace in the third frame.

“When we win games, we play as a team, and multiple guys get in on the action,” Pearl said.

After the Clippers ran their lead to 10-4 in the fourth, Smith tried to rally the Hawks again, firing two more past Yarmouth keeper Conor Hoehle and helping Glazier add another to pull Maranacook/Winthrop within three at 10-7.

Yarmouth ran out the clock from there, though, advancing to the Eastern Class B regional final against Freeport, a 13-12 winner over Camden Hills on Saturday.

“They pushed us really hard all the way to the end,” Pearl said. “I’m glad we don’t have to play them another quarter.”

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