Yachtsmen sink Wildcats

FALMOUTH — The Jay/Livermore Falls girls' soccer squad has made great strides in its short time as a varsity program.

Tuesday, the Wildcats saw just how far they have yet to go.

Nancy Cooper netted three goals, Jill Alvarez added two more and Elizabeth Estabrook and Jackie Doyle combined on a two-save shutout as defending Class B state champion and second-seeded Falmouth rolled to an 8-0 win over No. 7 Jay/Livermore Falls in the teams' Western Class B quarterfinal match.

"They've won five of the last eight state championships," Jay/Livermore Falls coach Travis Magnusson said. "It's funny, you look at the score, but it really didn't feel that bad. We didn't get totally dominated. They made great plays on their scores, they're a great team, probably one of the best in the state, but it really didn't feel like that much."

The statistics told another story.

After a small push in the opening minutes of the contest that yielded a pair of shots and forced Estabrook to make her one save of the game, the Wildcats (8-5-2) never sniffed the cage again. On the other end, Falmouth launched 42 shots at the Jay/Livermore Falls net. Keeper Beth Moore did well to make 22 saves. Eight, of course, found the twine, and 12 offers missed wide for the Yachtsmen (10-1-4).

"We know we only have control over the way we play," Falmouth coach Jon Shardlow said. "We don't go into a game thinking about another team negatively or give them too much credit. We go out and play the game we're capable of playing, and if we're at the end of a favorable result by the end of the day, we're happy."

The Yachtsmen dazzled with ball control, maintaining possession with two- and three-touch passing and effectively switching fields when warranted. Four of Falmouth's first five scores were one-timers on crosses from the strong side, including all three of Cooper's. Collectively, her scoring shots traveled less than 12 yards.

"We saw early on that they were overloading the strong side," Shardlow said. "It took us a few minutes, but we made the adjustment and sent the ball across."

Jamie Sabo struck first for the Yachtsmen on a feed from Katie Vogt. The two flip-flopped roles on the second Falmouth tally 5:10 later. Cooper's first pair came in the 25th minute and 38th minute of the opening half, giving the home team a comfortable 4-0 cushion.

Cooper's third just 35 seconds into the second half prompted wholesale changes to the Yachtsmen's lineup. Alvarez potted her pair less than two minutes apart later in the half, and Sarah Girouard netted the game's final goal with 28 ticks left on the clock.

With just two seniors on their roster and coming off the team's highest win total to date, there is plenty of optimism in the Jay/Livermore Falls camp.

"They've come a long way in the three years," Magnusson said. "We were playing JV teams three years ago. We've been the seventh seed both times, and we lost in a prelim game last year. We're improving, getting better, and hopefully they're all coming back."