The Buckfield senior just wasn’t sure whether it would be a good memory, or one he’d like to forget.
“I was talking to my coach saying, ‘You’ve put me in an awkward position,'” Chabe said as he waited to take a penalty kick to decide Wednesday’s Class D South championship game. “We take PK’s all the time in practice, but they’re never like that.”
Chabe walked up to his nail-biter with the game on his shoulders.
“I got up there and I knew I had the chance to win it,” Chabe said. “I’m shaking the whole time. I just calmed myself and put it in.”
His goal gave the Bucks a 5-3 win in the first round of penalty kicks, lifting Buckfield to a 1-0 win over Richmond. Buckfield plays for its first state championship Saturday at 5:30 p.m. against Fort Fairfield at Presque Isle Middle School.
“It’s such a great feeling,” said senior Hunter Wiley, whose penalty kick gave Buckfield a 4-3 lead, setting up Chabe’s chance to win it. “We got here last year and came in second place. It was still a big thrill because we made it there, but we’re on top of the world. It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had.”
Buckfield lost to Richmond in the regional final last year, but edged the Bobcats in two other meetings this season, 2-1 and 1-0.
“I think it was very evenly matched,” Richmond coach Peter Gardner said. “It was 1-0 and 2-1. Hats off to them. They did it three times. It wasn’t a fluke.”
After two periods of overtime, the teams had to settle for the penalty kicks. Buckfield excelled at the challenge, scoring on all five. Ethan Jackson scored the first one but Richmond’s Tyler Soucy scored to tie it. After Sidney Jackson gave the Bucks the lead, Logan Anair tied it again. Jon Randolph put the Bucks ahead 3-2, but Richmond tied it once more on a Brendan Emmonds shot, tying it 3-3. That’s when Wiley had his chance.
“I was pretty nervous that’s for sure,” Wiley said. “I’d never been in a PK lineup before. We’ve done PK’s in practice. Coach was just telling us to stay calm and shoot it. The only thing I knew how to do was shoot it — hard and low, like Coach tells us to.”
After his goal gave the Bucks the lead, Curtis Anderson’s shot was saved by Buckfield keeper Jacob Kraske, setting the stage for Chabe’s winner.
“We knew today was going to be a battle,” Buckfield coach Kyle Rines said. “It always comes down to one of our goals, which is to play as a team. You never know what’s going to happen.”
It was a back-and-forth game from the start. Richmond controlled play at times but struggled to finish. Buckfield would get some energy and put some pressure on with Sidney Jackson and Randolph up front.
“Richmond played their hearts out and we played our hearts out,” Rines said. “It just happens that in the PK’s, we came out on top.
Richmond had a chance early when the ball deflected off a defender toward the net, but Kraske was there for the save. Sidney Jackson had a bid in the first half, but Richmond goalie Zach Small made the stop.
In the second half, Richmond surged at the end. The Bobcats put on some great pressure and had a flurry of corner kicks. Still, Richmond couldn’t break the stalemate. Brady Johnson, Anderson, Cody Teibbet, Nathan Kendrick and Matt Holt had bids late in regulation, but the Bucks weathered that storm.
“That’s when we really needed to capitalize,” Gardner said. “We had some really good opportunities the last 20 or 25 minutes. They cleared the corner kicks out. That’s what they needed to. They did a nice job.”
Buckfield (16-1) showed some energy in overtime and had some nice runs but also couldn’t find a finishing shot. Randolph put a shot off the crossbar and had another try when he burned by a defender but put the shot over the net.
“We made some small adjustments in the overtime period,” Rines said. “We tried to put more speed up front but just couldn’t get that one through ball.”
Beating Richmond (11-5) three times and dethroning the defending Class D champions was quite away for the Bucks to earn their first regional crown in front of a home crowd.
“Richmond has a history of coming out on top and we were able to come out on top this year,” Rines said. “I’m very proud of where our program has come in the last three or four years.”
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