YARMOUTH—Colter Olson has made a powerful impact on the Yarmouth boys’ lacrosse program and Friday night, in a Class B state quarterfinal round game against the visiting Gray-New Gloucester/Poland 26ers, Olson reached a milestone that few can even envision.

And his contributions helped the third-ranked Clippers take another step closer toward something even more highly coveted than scoring a landmark goal.

Winning a state championship.

Yarmouth made quick work of the 11th-seeded 26ers, racing to a 7-1 lead after one quarter and a 12-2 advantage by halftime.

In the first half, Olson didn’t score a goal, but he set up seven, with the seventh marking the 300th point of his illustrious career.

Olson did tickle the twine twice in the third period and the Clippers rolled to a 16-4 victory.

While Olson had his hands involved in nine goals, sophomore Hakon Yeo led the way by scoring six and Yarmouth improved to 12-3, ended GNG/Poland’s season at 8-8 and in the process, advanced to the state semifinals to meet either No. 2 Messalonskee (12-2) or No. 7 Freeport (10-5) in the state semifinals Tuesday in Gardiner at a time to be announced.

“I was a little nervous coming into the season, but I couldn’t be more happy with how the guys are doing and how they’re really stepping up,” said Olson, who will play next year at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “We came into this one understanding what would happen, but we didn’t come in cocky. We knew we had to play 100 percent.”

Making a point, or 300 of them

Yarmouth has been one of the state’s best teams all season and finished third in Class B after an 11-3 campaign (see sidebar for links to previous stories), which included a season-ending win at three-time defending Class A champion Cape Elizabeth.

“We hadn’t had a big win against a top five team in the state, so that was huge heading into playoffs,” said Clippers coach Jon Miller.

GNG/Poland, meanwhile, started the year 0-3, including an 18-7 loss at Yarmouth in the opener, but came alive late in the season and wound up 7-7. As the No. 11 seed, the 26ers upset No. 6 Mt. Blue in Tuesday’s preliminary round, 13-11, to advance.

The teams had no prior playoff history.

Friday, on a chilly, rainy evening, the Clippers never let the 26ers entertain upset hopes as they took care of business and advanced.

Yarmouth struck first just 57 seconds in, as junior Matt Cain scored unassisted.

GNG/Poland then answered man-up with 10:13 to play in the opening stanza, as senior Noah Schaeffer set up junior Ashten Golebiewski for a shot that Clippers sophomore goalie Will Redfield couldn’t stop.

Yarmouth went back in front to stay 49 seconds later, as Olson recorded his first assist, setting up sophomore Ian Minnihan.

The 26ers had a look to tie it, but Redfield denied junior Breck Langevin and at the other end, in transition, Minnihan fed Yeo for his first goal and a 3-1 lead.

After Redfield saved a bid from Schaeffer, sophomore George Brown found junior Owen Walsh for another goal with 7:14 remaining.

With 6:09 left in the frame, Minnihan got his second assist, on Cain’s second goal, to make it 5-1.

GNG/Poland senior goalie Kyle Plummer denied Walsh and Brown, but with 2:53 on the clock, Olson found sophomore Colby Carnes for a goal and after a timeout from 26ers coach Tyler DeMoore-Gonzalez, Olson threw a pretty pass to Yeo, who finished with 1:42 to go, making it 7-1 after one period.

As the rain picked up, Yarmouth poured it on in the second quarter.

A minute in, playing man-up, Olson connected with Carnes for a goal.

With 9:54 left in the half, Olson delivered a gem of a pass to Yeo, who beat Plummer.

After senior Benjamin Powell hit the crossbar for GNG/Poland, Olson again put the ball right on the money for Yeo to score easily, stretching the lead to 10-1 with 3:48 on the clock.

“They were stretched out on me 30 yards and I got double teamed and the least I could do was pass the ball,” Olson said. “I’ve got a really good group of five other guys on the field that I’m confident passing to. Hakon is my go-to guy. If I don’t have my hands free to shoot it, the ball goes to him and he puts it in the back of the net.”

“I’m not complaining that (Colter) gets attention (from the defense) because he gets me a lot of my goals,” Yeo said. “He’s a great passer, a great player, a great kid. He’s taught me on and off the field. How to be a goal scorer and a good teammate as well.”

Eighteen seconds later, Yeo scored again, this time from Brown.

With 3:11 remaining in the first half, Schaeffer ended the 10-0 Yarmouth run, scoring from senior Caden Ouellette, but with 2:31 to go, Olson set up Walsh for a 12-2 lead.

The assist marked the 300th point (goals and assists combined) of Olson’s time in a Clippers uniform.

“I’m very excited about 300,” Olson said. “Mainly because it’s not 300 goals. It’s very split. The first year, I had more assists than goals. Last year, I was a little bit top-heavy. This year, the assists are there. I joke with (assistant coach) Sam (Miller) because he beat me for the regular season goal scoring record by like four or five goals, but I tell him, ‘If I passed the ball a little bit less, maybe I’d beat you.'”

“A good achievement in lacrosse is 150 points, so to double that is just amazing,” said Jon Miller, who was once a brilliant Yarmouth goal scorer himself. “I’ve called Colter a once-in-a-decade type player for us. He’s been a big deal. That 300 points is in three seasons. He didn’t play for us freshman year. He dictates the offense. We rely on him more than the average player. He’s done a good job of being selfless at the right time.”

The Clippers outshot the 26ers, 26-8, in the first half and while they didn’t let up in the second half, they did take their foot off the scoring gas.

With 8:15 to go in the third quarter, Yeo scored his final goal, from junior Marcelino Mulumbu.

Olson finally got in the scoring column himself with 2:33 showing, finishing a feed from Brown and in the process, inducing the mercy rule running clock due to a 12-goal lead.

Olson scored his second and final goal with 6:52 to play in the fourth quarter, bouncing off a defender and finishing unassisted.

Junior defenseman Ward Jenkins then got in on the fun with 5:24 remaining, scoring unassisted for the Clippers’ final goal.

Senior Talen Langevin scored two unassisted goals down the stretch for GNG/Poland, but Yarmouth was able to run out the clock and celebrate its 16-4 victory.

“We passed the ball really well tonight,” said Yeo. “As the season’s gone on, we’ve gotten better with ball movement. Moving it around helped. We had some good cuts and talked a lot. We played them first game of the season and we beat them, so we looked back at what worked last time.”

Yeo had a monster game, scoring six times.

“Hakon’s great,” Miller said. “He’s so solid on ground balls. He catches everything. He had a huge game tonight.”

Olson stuffed the stat sheet with two goals and a whopping seven assists, giving him 75 goals and 54 assists in 15 games this spring.

Cain, Carnes and Walsh all scored twice, while Jenkins and Minnihan both had one goal.

Redfield made seven saves and senior Eddie Kim, who came on late in the game, stopped one shot.

Junior Wyatt Gawtry scooped up a game-high seven ground balls.

The Clippers had a 12-11 edge in faceoff victories and enjoyed advantages in ground balls (20-14), shots (38-15) and shots on cage (25-12).

Yarmouth overcame 19 turnovers.

GNG/Poland got two goals from Talen Langevin and one apiece from Golebiewski and Schaeffer.

Ouellette and Schaeffer each had one assist.

Plummer made nine saves.

Breck Langevin had a team-high five ground balls.

The 26ers committed 30 turnovers.

Road trip

This spring, for the first time, the state semifinals are being contested on a neutral field, so the Clippers will make the trip to Gardiner next week looking to take the final step to Fitzpatrick Stadium for the state final, which will be held next Saturday.

Yarmouth enjoyed an 18-11 home win over Messalonskee May 2. The teams have played just once before in the tournament, a 16-1 Clippers’ victory in the 2003 East Division quarterfinals.

Yarmouth downed host Freeport, 21-6, way back on April 16. The Clippers are 4-0 all-time versus the Falcons in the tournament, with a 16-3 win in the 2014 Eastern B Final the most recent.

Yarmouth will be the favorite against either potential foe, but won’t be overconfident.

“We have to keep up our energy and team morale,” Yeo said. “We have to be supportive of each other and work hard in practice.”

“We just need to stay composed,” said Olson. “We have to focus on the little things. We have to take a step forward instead of three steps back in the next couple days of practice. We’re just all trying to stay healthy.

“The last time I played at (Cape Elizabeth’s) Hannaford Field, I won, and the last time I played (at home), I won, so fingers crossed we can win the last one at Fitzpatrick Stadium.”

“We just have to get the ball,” Miller added. “Our faceoffs and ball security have improved. We just have to run everything we practice and we’ll be OK. The boys just have to execute and I think they can.”

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net

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