PORTLAND — Once Kyra Schwartzman got going, there was no stopping her.

The Kennebunk Rams’ senior attacker scored five goals in a 9-7 win over Yarmouth to lift the Rams to the 2016 Class B girls’ state title, their first state championship after several runner-up finishes, including last year’s 11-10 loss to the Clippers.

The Rams finished the season 15-0.

After the defeat to Yarmouth last June, Kennebunk coach Annie Barker knew going into the game her team needed to be mentally tough.

“We learned everybody had to be mentally prepared,” Barker said. “We knew they had the skills, that the mental game was going to be (important) because it’s a very physical game once you get to the state championship.”

With Yarmouth focusing on Jenny Bush, Schwartzman was left with some good looks offensively.

“Honestly, no I didn’t think of it like that, I thought we needed to get this done, they are face guarding Jenny,” Schwartzman said. “What can we do as a team to do this? I had a couple (goals) that were free positions and a couple were off of feeds. These girls saw me and the assists are just as important as the goal. I was luckily enough they found me, but it could easily been the other way around.”

Schwartzman scored her hat trick goal 49 seconds into the second half to give the Rams a 6-2 lead.

After Jess Kirk scored Yarmouth’s third goal nearly two minutes later, Schwartzman scored the Rams’ next two goals, her fourth goal of the day coming 8:07 into the half and her fifth at the 13:27 mark for a 8-3 lead.

Yarmouth closed the gap with three straight. Eva Then scored her second of the match to cut the deficit to 8-4. Kirk followed with her second goal. Sophia Harrison put the Clippers within two with 1:12 remaining in the contest.

The teams traded goals in the final minute, with Olivia Sanford scoring for Kennebunk and Then notching the hat trick by beating the buzzer.

The Rams opened a three-goal lead at the half. With the game tied at two, Jenny Bush gave the Rams the 3-2 lead with 2:36 remaining. Hallie and Kyra Schwartzman made the game 5-2 with Hallie’s goal coming with 1:50 remaining while Kyra’s tally came with a minute remaining.

It was Kyra’s second goal of the half as she gave the Kennebunk a 2-1 lead.

Kristen Koch opened the scoring in the game 1:28 into the contest to give Kennebunk the 1-0 lead.

Cory Langenbech scored from a free position for Yarmouth (12-4) to tie the game at one. She assisted on Eva Then’s goal that tied the contest at two with 10:19 remaining in the opening half.

“I just said to them, we worked really hard to get here,” Yarmouth coach Dorothy Holt said. “We came up short, but you what, we know what we have to do next year.”

nfournier@sunjournal.com

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