The Bangor High School girls soccer team finally solved Camden Hills of Rockport.
The top-seeded Rams, who had lost their last five playoff meetings with Camden Hills — including three coming in Class A North championship games — received a pair of goals from junior midfielder Teagan Atherley and edged the Windjammers 2-1 in their Class A North title game at Lewiston High School Tuesday night.
They were Atherley’s team-leading 22nd and 23rd goals of the season.
They gave Bangor a 2-0 lead early in the second half and the Rams were able to survive a goal by Camden Hills’ junior midfielder Leah Snyder with 18 minutes remaining to register the win.
Bangor improved to 16-1 and will take on defending state champ Scarborough, also 16-1, in Saturday’s 10 a.m. state title game at Messalonskee High School in Oakland.
Scarborough beat Gorham 3-2 in the A South final.
It will be Bangor’s first appearance in a state title game since the Rams beat Gorham 2-0 in the 2015 state final.
Camden Hills was seeking its first state title game berth since the Windjammers concluded their run of four consecutive state championships in 2019.
Atherley opened the scoring when she sprinted on to a Clara Oldenburg through ball and broke in on Camden Hills goalkeeper Maddy Tohanczyn before slotting the ball past her.
Atherley scored what proved to be the game-winner with a powerful shot from outside the penalty area that sailed into the corner to the right of Tohanczyn.
“She smoked that,” said Bangor first-year head coach Jay Kemble.
“That was a beautiful shot,” agreed Camden Hills coach Meredith Messer.
Kemble and Messer said it was a good battle.
“The first half was played between the 40s (in midfield) but, in the second half, both had some good looks,” Messer said. “It took us a little while to get our legs going in the first half but we did a better job in the second half. We controlled the ball better and we had a couple of great opportunities. We missed by inches.”
“The wind picked up in the second half and they had the wind,” Kemble said. “We talked about keeping the ball low and keeping it out of the wind. The kids played well, defensively, all night. They had great rotations and made some big stops when they needed to.”
He said every one of his players played well.
Junior goalkeeper Eva Coombs picked up the win.
Messer praised the leadership and play of seniors Brenna Mackey, a striker, and center back-midfielder Amelia Johnson as well as junior midfielder Britta Denny.
Camden Hills’ only losses this season were to Bangor as the Rams triumphed 3-0 on Sept. 7 in Bangor. Camden Hills was without two injured starters and another starter was coming off COVID-19 in that match.
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified who scored Camden Hills’ lone goal. It was Leah Snyder.
