AUBURN — A year ago, Nat Crocker was just a ball boy.

The Hall-Dale forward was chasing balls, running lines and watching varsity soccer.

Thursday, Crocker was still running after loose balls but this time he was putting them in the net. The Bulldog freshman did that twice to lift Hall-Dale to a 2-0 win over St. Dom’s in the Mountain Valley Conference championship game.

“It’s awesome,” said Crocker, whose team lost to the top-ranked Saints 1-0 in the regular season. “I’m just a freshman. Last year, I was just a ball boy and now I’m playing varsity, scoring two goals and winning the Mountain Valley Conference championship.”

 Finishing third overall in the Western C standings, Hall-Dale was hoping to not only get to the conference title game but also have a shot at winning it.

“This was one of our goals,” said Hall-Dale coach Andy Haskell, whose team hosts a quarterfinal game against Dirigo next week. Dirigo is coached by Jack Rioux, a former player of Haskell’s at Mt. Ararat. “We wanted to get to the Mountain Valley Conference championship and play it like a championship game. It’s the first time in 12 years that Hall-Dale has won the Mountain Valley Conference championship. It was important for us.”

It was the first loss for the Saints, which finished the regular season at 12-0-2.

“It was a good lesson for our kids,” said St. Dom’s coach Marty Bressler. “The kids are aware of the big prize. The kids want the big prize this year. We know we have to play a lot better.”

Crocker scored with 13:36 left in the first half and then made it 2-0 with 13:35 left in the second.

“We’re an opportunistic team, and I have a lot of confidence in Nat,” said Haskell. “He’s a very solid player and he played very well for us this year. He plays very composed and comes up big in big games.”

The Saints, meanwhile, struggled to produce the kind of shot to beat Bulldog goalie Sam Shepherd. St. Dom’s,  without starters because of illness, struggled to connect on passes on the offensive end for quality shots.

“The first 20 minutes it felt like we weren’t in a very good rhythm,” said Bressler. “I told the team that since they such a talented team and well coached, the first team to make a mistake will lose. We made two big mistakes.”

Neither team was able to generate a wealth of chances in the first half. Both teams possessed well but couldn’t set up many threatening shots. Late in the half, Zach Plummer sent the ball forward. Crocker chased it down, beating St. Dom’s keeper Cam Hainey to the ball. He tipped it by the goalie and watched it roll into an open net.

“It was crazy,” said Crocker. “I knew it went in, but I turned around and Colin Lush came at me screaming ‘Yeah, we scored. Nice job Nat.’ Then everyone was high-fiving me and congratulating me.”

The Saints picked up their game in the second half but still couldn’t finish a shot to beat Shepherd.

“We didn’t shoot enough in the first half,” said Bressler, whose team will play the prelim winner of NYA and Mt. Abram next week. “The second half was a lot better, but we can play better and we need to on Wednesday.”

Tyler Furtado had one of the Saints best shots when he stole the ball and burst in for a shot that went wide midway through the second half. Calvin Stewart missed wide after a nice passing play by the Saints. Will Desmaris had a pair of shots late, one of which hit the crossbar.

“We play a sound, techinical game and try to limit the number of scoring opportunities the other team has,” said Haskell, whose team has nine shutouts this year. “We try not to conceed goals. If you have that attitude of not giving up goals, all you need is one or two.”

Crocker scored the second after a collision of players left Hainey out of position and the ball headed for Crocker.

“Zach Plummer and a St. Dom’s defender kicked it, and it just came to me,” said Crocker. “I buried it to the right side.”

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