LEWISTON — After Waynflete broke its post-awards ceremony huddle, coach Peter Hart channeled his inner hockey player.

NHL players often will not celebrate with conference championship trophies, waiting to hoist the Stanley Cup after winning the title. Hart made sure not to touch the trophy after the Flyers won the Class C South title with a 3-2 win over North Yarmouth Academy on Monday at Bates Colleges.

“Bigger things,” Hart said. 

Those bigger things come Wednesday at the Class C state championship match, when Waynflete will play North champ Maine Central Institute at 8:30 a.m. at Bates College.

The Maranacook girls also repeated as C South regional champ, beating Madison 5-0. The Black Bears will face Orono in the state championship match at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, also at Bates.

Waynflete won both doubles matches to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Silas Wellenius and Jules Kirby defeated NYA’s Eamon Tansey and Mansuk Laboka, 6-3, 6-2, and Otis Wellenius and Griffen Hissong defeated Read Weiss and Will Michaelis, 6-1, 6-4. 

NYA won two singles matches to get back into it. Sawyer Hebert defeated Leo Wolf 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2 and Liam O’Shea won the No. 1 singles match against Jonah Rawlins, 6-3, 6-0 to even things up.

The No. 3 singles match went three sets, needed a second-set tiebreaker, and lasted longer than two hours before Noah Stern-Rich gave Waynflete the win by beating Finn Mahoney 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-1.

“That first set was pretty good, but then, I don’t know, I just was kind of in my head in the second set,” Stern-Rich said. “But kind of just taking a break with my coach, figuring out how to do it, and then third set was 6-1, went pretty well. So, yeah, just staying consistent. And I was just kind of trying to, I don’t know, it sounds pretty simple, but just hit it a little harder and to not give (Mahoney) those overheads that I had been giving him in the second set.”

This is the Flyers’ (13-2) third win of the season over the Panthers (7-8). Waynflete won 5-0 on April 16 and 4-1 on May 26.

The Flyers have won 18 straight regional titles, and 23 overall. They are now focused on bringing a state title back to Waynflete after their run of 16 consecutive Class C titles was ended last year by Orono.

“This feeling is pretty great, but also you got to look forward to (the) state championship, start a new streak now for that,” Stern-Rich said. 

The defending state champion Maranacook girls only had one match go three sets, Julia Thaller’s 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Julie Stolinova in No. 2 singles.

“I told them to play this match like just a regular match,” Maranacook coach Lou Gingras said. “Last time we played them it was 3-2, so I just said, ‘Stay focused, play your game and good things will happen,’ and they did.”

Gingras said his team played with more confidence and benefitted from the tournament environment this time around against Madison.

Maranacook’s Lydia Garofalo beat Jade Young, 6-1, 6-0 in the No. 1 singles match, and in No. 3 singles, Leah Hildebrant defeated Amara Buja 6-4, 7-6 (2).

The Black Bears on both doubles matches in two sets: Olivia Welch and Katelyn Hall beat Melina Shepardson and Mikalee Johnston 6-1, 6-2; and Eva Morrill and Katie Payne defeated Audrey Dillingham and Kierra Plummer 6-2, 6-1.

Maranacook will be vying for its third state title in four years on Wednesday. Monday’s regional title is the program’s fourth, and more could be coming.

“Luckily, we don’t have any seniors in the lineup, so I’m hoping good things happen again,” Gingras said.