PORTLAND — For the first 29 minutes of Saturday’s Class B girls’ soccer state championship game, Greely couldn’t buy a goal, missing on its first eight shots on goal, and four more that were off target.

Once the Rangers did get one to go in, Hermon had trouble stopping them, and Greely ran away with a 6-0 victory at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

Greely (16-2) pelted Hermon goalie Bryanne Crouse with a flurry of shots for much of the first half, but it was the Hawks who had the first dangerous chance of the game. Greely goalie Maddie Cyr made a point-blank save against Alex Allain that led to a Hermon corner kick, but that was cleared away.

The Hermon (15-1-2) defense held off the Rangers for only so long, as Jocelyn Mitiguy ran onto an Anna DeWolfe pass up the right side and blasted a shot off Crouse’ gloves and into the net at 29:29.

“I think it changed the momentum for our team, because we started out a little bit slow. Then we picked it up right as the first goal was scored,” Mitiguy said.

Cyr made a goal-line save on an Allain shot just over a minute later to keep Greely up 1-0.

The Rangers went up 2-0 with six minutes left in the half, as Katie Steinberg’s corner kick was headed by DeWolfe toward the goal, where Izzy Hutnak was there to re-direct the ball in.

“We knew that they were going to be strong,” Hermon head coach M.J. Ball said. “Keeping it 0-0 is what we were trying to do for half, and then make adjustments.”

The Hawks held the two-goal deficit at halftime, despite being outshot 22-3. Hermon then had the first shot of the second half, but Emi Higgins’ shot off a corner kick sailed over the crossbar three minutes in.

Less than four minutes later the Rangers started scoring again. Courtney Sullivan worked through the Hermon defense before firing an open shot into the goal. Hutnak scored five minutes later after working the ball up the left side then into the box for the successful shot.

“We knew that they were going to be good,” Ball said. “We thought we could match it. We’ve got fast players in the back as well. But it was also the speed in which they carried the ball, which is different.”

Mitiguy emulated Hutnak’s goal with 13 minutes remaining, carrying the ball in from the left side before beating Crouse.

“No. 2 and 5 were too much,” Ball said of Mitiguy and Hutnak.

Greely pulled many of its starters with just over 10 minutes left, and the nine seniors got a deserved ovation.

“It’s great for them as seniors, last game, coming out and finishing up like that,” Greely head coach Josh Muscadin said. “As a coach you couldn’t ask more than that.”

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