FALMOUTH — Maine Central Institute ended York’s three-year championship reign by defeating the Wildcats 5-0 in the Class B state title game at Falmouth High School on Saturday.
“It’s such a surreal feeling,” senior Addi Williams said.
Williams tallied three goals for the Huskies, including the game’s first score near the midway point of the first half.
“It was off of a corner, and it always either goes outside the post or hits the goalie right on the edge of her pads,” Williams said. “So I really dialed in in that corner, and it was perfect.”
That was the only goal of the first half. Williams scored her second in the fifth minute of the second half.
York had a couple chances on the same play a few minutes later, but MCI goalkeeper Elspeth Taylor made one stop, hit the ground, got up, and made the other stop.
“We have confidence in her,” Williams said. “She’s phenomenal.
“That’s Elspeth. She’ll put her body in crazy positions to just save it, so she gives it her all, for sure.”
Vivian Duncombe made it 3-0 with 19:15 to play, and the championship started to slip out of the Wildcats’ grasp.
“I think they kept the pressure on,” York coach Barb Marois said. “And we, it kind of just kept snowballing and chiseling into their confidence and I think they just started second guessing.”
Williams’ third goal came with 15:34 remaining in the game.
“Pretty impressive,” MCI coach Nancy Hughes said. “Would you believe she’s not a Miss Maine candidate? Just throwing that out there.”
Allysah Green capped the scoring with 3:23 left.
The Huskies were playing in their third consecutive state championship game, but the past two (a championship in 2015 and a runner-up to Oak Hill) came in Class C.
They have always played a Class B schedule, but Hughes said winning the Class C title is quite the feat.
“It’s huge for us, honestly,” she said. “It’s a special group of girls. When we won the C title two years ago, a lot of the girls that I have were freshmen and sophomores. And losing it last year kind of made them refocus, like, OK, we know it’s going to be even harder in B, but we know that have the talent to do it.”
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