John Bapst boys win 3rd straight B North soccer title

The John Bapst High School boys soccer team earned its third straight Class B North championship on Wednesday evening as Moritz Mueller's goal with just over 23 minutes remaining gave the Crusaders a hard-fought 3-1 win over Medomak Valley High of Waldoboro at the Hampden Academy field.

Oscar Martinez of John Bapst and Medomak Valley's Noah Swartz swapped first-half goals.

Mueller broke the tie when he took the ball along the left side just outside the penalty area, took a couple touches toward the middle and sizzled a shot into the far corner.

"I saw the goal, did a trick and put it bottom right," said striker Mueller, a junior foreign exchange student from Germany. "I didn't think about it, I just shot it."

It was his 14th goal.

Martinez sewed up the win with a penalty kick with 1:32 remaining, his 17th goal of the season.

John Bapst improved to 16-1 while Medomak Valley wound up 10-3-4.

It was a game of two halves.

Medomak Valley was the better team in the first half but the Crusaders were decisively better in the second half.

John Bapst had two balls cleared off the goal line by Medomak defenders, and the MV goalkeeper made a good positional save off Laken Walker who was sent in alone down the right flank by Martinez.

John Bapst had a 6-1 edge in shot attempts in the second half.

"That was one of our best halves (of the season)," said Mueller.

"They're a great team. They've had a great season. They caught us by surprise in the first half," said senior Martinez. "We had to adjust in the second half, for sure. Our team has the resiliency to bounce back which we did in the second half."

"The second half was a depth (issue)," said Medomak Valley coach Brian Campbell. "We were running a thinner bench (with only 16 players) on a big field. Our field is a narrower pitch."

Campbell added that he was "very proud" of his team.

The Crusaders will face Greely of Cumberland Center in Saturday's 3 p,m, state final at Cameron Stadium in Bangor,

The Crusaders took a 1-0 lead against the run of play on their first attempt of the game.

Medomak Valley had the game's first four shot attempts.

Walker took a powerful shot from the right edge of the penalty area and Medomak Valley goalkeeper Dima Cheesman did a great job getting his fingertips on it.

But the ball dropped straight down and Martinez was right there to nod it home from a yard out.

"I made sure I was onside and I picked up the trash. That's my job," said Martinez.

Swartz equalized off a short corner with 12:54 remaining in the half.

Neva Power received the ball off the short corner on the left side of the field and sent a low diagonal pass across the crowded goalmouth.

It carried to the edge of the six yard box where Swartz poked it into the net.

"We had one of our poorer first halves but it was because of their speed and the pressure they put on us early on," said JB coach Jason Pangburn. "In the second half, we tightened a few things up and moved the ball out to the width of where we wanted to play more because they were really strong in the middle in the first half."

Connor Messervey had two saves on six shot attempts for John Bapst and Cheesman had four stops on 11 shots.