AUBURN — No. 2 Sacopee Valley shut out No. 1 St. Dom’s in the Western Class C girls’ soccer championship Wednesday afternoon.

You can bet that some TV anchorman who hasn’t ventured more than five miles from his desk since the Carter administration or a random apologist for the Heal Point system will consider the seeds, digest the 3-0 score and declare it an upset.

Call it convincing if you’re a Hawk. Call it humbling if you’re a Saint. But please, don’t call it an upset or you’re a Doofus.

I’d be stretching farther than a goalkeeper going after an overtime penalty kick even to a pronounce this a mild surprise. That’s nothing against St. Dom’s. It’s simply a matter of history and geography.

St. Dom’s departed the Western Maine Conference and joined the Mountain Valley Conference prior to the 2009-10 school year. It cuts travel time and costs. It provides a built-in Class C schedule. It offers steeper competition in almost every sport.

Except soccer.

This marked the second straight year that previously undefeated, top-seeded St. Dom’s lost to former conference rival Sacopee of South Hiram in the regional playoffs. Last year’s heartbreak came early when the No. 8 Hawks soared to a quarterfinal victory.

“I do miss the Western Maine Conference,” St. Dom’s coach Kathy Little admitted after some prodding. “You play a different level of competition. You play a more possession-style game, a more aggressive style of soccer.”

The proof sits on shelves throughout Cumberland and York counties.

WMC schools now have won 12 of the last 13 Western Class C girls’ championships and 10 of the last 12 state titles.

Carrabec (1987), Dirigo (1996) and Georges Valley (2009) are the only MVC programs to win the Class C crown. And Mt. Abram is the only other ‘C’ school from the league even to appear in the state final.

“It’s competitive, but it’s more of a kick-and-run style game,” Little said of St. Dom’s current conference. “It’s not a consistent level of competitiveness every time you step on the field. (Sacopee has) that level of play, game-in, game-out. It could be a goal, it could be a two-goal game every time.”

Despite it’s you-can’t-theyah-from-heah isolation, Sacopee faces those challenges from generally larger schools that live, breathe, eat and drink this game.

Nine of the Hawks’ 14 regular-season games were decided by a goal or less. Sacopee was 7-1-1 in those games, tying North Yarmouth Academy and losing only to non-conference Class D power Richmond.

Sacopee also went undefeated against five Class B foes.

“I don’t want to say the Mountain Valley Conference is inferior or anything,” said Sacopee senior Kara Singleton, who scored two goals Wednesday. “But the Western Maine Conference, they are bigger, they’re physical, they’re faster, they’re stronger, they are more trained. There is not a weak team in the Western Maine Conference.”

The Saints were no pushover in the southwestern league. St. Dom’s usually cleared the .500 mark and advanced to the regional playoffs.

Yes, they even won their share of games over Sacopee. And on a different day, these Saints were talented enough to hang with those Hawks.

Especially if they ran the same two-month gauntlet as a means of studying for the test.

“Better than half our games require us to play that style of game that we brought here today,” said Sacopee coach Kevin Murphy. “I know Kathy knows. She’s played against us. She’s played in that division. She was well prepared and knew what was coming.

“If you look at the academies we face and the five Class B schools we had to face this year. to run through that competition, they are phenomenal. Every one of those teams we played were good, and it made us better.”

Strength of schedule isn’t the only obstacle for an MVC team in the playoffs. Sheer tradition wasn’t on the Saints’ side, either.

And it isn’t only an MVC or a girls’ soccer phenomenon. The disparity extends throughout most of the tri-county region and into the boys’ game, too.

More history:

— WMC teams have captured nine consecutive state titles and 18 straight regional crowns in Class B girls’ soccer. Winslow was the last outsider to win states in 2000. On the sectional side, you have to go all the way back to the 1991 Lisbon Greyhounds to find a non-WMC champion.

— Other than St. Dom’s, which ruled the state after changing leagues in 2009, Georges Valley (2003) and Carrabec (2004) are the only MVC teams to win a Class C boys’ title since 1995.

— Sixteen straight Class B boys’ championships have stayed in the WMC, including a staggering 10 in a row to either Falmouth or Yarmouth.

— The last public school boys’ team from the Sun Journal region to win a state title was Monmouth, which took Class D honors in 1999 and 2000. Before that? Gray-New Gloucester, a WMC program, which won Class B all the way back in ’83.

— It’s a similar tale on the girls’ side, where Monmouth was the last local team to claim a title in 2000. Dirigo (1996) and Lisbon (1991) are the only others. Yes, ever.

If it’s hard to replicate that southern and midcoast level of competition around here, it’s impossible to mimic that tradition in practice.

The truth may hurt, but soccer is an afterthought sport in our area. I wonder if it ever will close the gap.

Don’t tell me those southern and mid coast schools have been playing it longer. This isn’t lacrosse. The body of work now goes back 30 and 40 years.

Don’t tell me it’s a socioeconomic issue. Seriously, is there a less expensive sport to play than soccer?

Few games require more specialized skill, however. And for whatever reason, when it comes to the limited amount of time available for kids of all ages to hone those skills, basketball and hockey win out in this neck of the woods.

Other than St. Dom’s perceived advantage of being able to draw players from multiple towns — including some where the toddlers climb out of the cradle and immediately start rehearsing corner kicks — most of the pregame check marks were in Sacopee’s column.

Upset? Not by a longshot.

Kalle Oakes is a staff columnist. His email is [email protected].