For the second straight year, Yarmouth-Freeport posted a 3-1 victory over the Penobscot Pioneers in the Class A North schoolgirl hockey championship game on Tuesday night.
The Clippers built a 2-0 lead with goals in the first and second periods.
Emma White gave the Clippers a 1-0 lead at the 8:23 mark of the first period when she beat Pioneers goalie Abbie Derosier off a pass from Sophie Smith.
Yarmouth-Freeport made it 2-0 early in the second period when Isabel Peters swatted home the rebound of a Drea Rideout shot.
The Pioneers had a second-period goal waved off because the referees ruled the net had come off its moorings before Jordin Williams’ backhander crossed the goal line.
Penobscot coach Jarrod Williams didn’t agree with the call, saying the shot went in on the opposite side of the goal and that the goal came off its moorings because Clippers goalie Lexi Wiles (accidentally) kicked the post.
He also felt Williams had been pulled down on the play so if the goal was waved off, they should have at least received a penalty call which would have given them a two-man advantage since a penalty had been called on the Clippers earlier in the sequence.
There was no call.
He said that could have changed the momentum of the game but he also stressed that it didn’t cost them the game and the Clippers were deserving winners.
“Those things happen. Yarmouth came out flying in the first and second periods. They skated hard and they executed their game plan,” said Williams. “We picked it up after the goal was waved off (and carried it into the third period). We had a valiant effort.”
Jordin Williams did score for the Pioneers with 3:12 left in regulation, but the Clippers added an empty-net goal by Adelaide Strout to sew up the win and advance to the Saturday’s state title game against the winner of Wednesday’s Cheverus/Windham-Gorham co-op team game.
Cheverus beat Yarmouth-Freeport 3-2 in last year’s final.
Freshman goalie Wiles made 22 stops for the Clippers and Derosier finished with 25 for the Pioneers.
Yarmouth-Freeport improved to 17-4 while the second-year Pioneers wound up 16-5.
The Pioneers are composed of players from Bangor High, Brewer, Hampden Academy, Hermon, John Bapst, Old Town and Orono.
Yarmouth-Freeport had advanced to the final with playoff wins over Mt. Ararat (9-1) and the Winslow co-op team (7-1) while Penobscot bested the Edward Little co-op team (12-3) and Brunswick (4-0).
