GRAY — The combination of  Tristan Cuttler and Griffin Richmond helped the Gray-New Gloucester boys’ soccer team advance in the Class B South tournament Saturday.

Cuttler came made eight saves — including several grade-A chances in the second half — and Richmond scored the game’s first goal in the Patriots’ 2-0 win over Freeport in a preliminary game.

“This guy right here saved us a couple of times, I will be honest,” Richmond said of Cuttler. “He’s a great keeper, great guy. The first 20 of the first 40 (minutes) were a little rough; I don’t think we woke up at all, a little slow. But in the second half we picked up more.”

Boje Kautz also scored for seventh-seeded Gray-New Gloucester (7-6-2), who will face No. 2 Yarmouth (11-1-2) in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

Gray-New Gloucester lost four straight after a 7-1-1 start before ending the regular season with a 1-1 tie against York on Tuesday.

“I think doubted ourselves on a four-game stretch where we struggled a bit,” Gray-New Gloucester Coach Neil Carroll said. “We saw something click a little bit at York and we changed our shape and moved guys into some different spots and it has worked out.”

No. 10 Freeport finished 3-11-1.

“I thought they played really, really well,” Freeport Coach Peter Mills said. “I thought that’s a good team and we traded a ton of chances, played really hard, played really physical. Couldn’t score it, and they did, but we played. I was really proud of our performance.”

After a scoreless first half, Cuttler started the second half by stopping Freeport’s Liam Emmons point-blank in the fifth minute. Six minutes later, Cuttler made back-to-back saves to keep the game scoreless.

“There’s nothing you can do but react, really,” Cuttler said.

The Patriots earned a corner, their second of the game, in the 17th minute. Following Rylee Brooks’ kick, Richmond made his way through a crowd and knocked the ball past Freeport keeper Mason Vintinner (one save).

“I have been imagining that day since I was a little boy, I got to be honest with you,” Richmond said of scoring the go-ahead goal. “Rylee made a great service to my head and I saw it hanging out there and I jumped for it and it into the corner like I was taught.”

Cuttler, meanwhile, continued to come up huge, making two saves in the 26th minute to keep the game 1-0.

Freeport’s Calvin Carter runs up the field during Saturday’s game against Gray-New Gloucester. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

“It was nerve-wracking. It’s nothing scarier than a guy on the 6-yard line blasting it at your face,” Cuttler said. “You have to cover and pray a little bit.”

Kautz added the insurance goal in the 32nd minute when he chased a long volley from teammate Carter Laliberty and chipped the ball over Vintinner from the 18-yard box into the net.

“Carter Laliberty and Boje together are a deadly combination going forward,” Carroll said. “That ball through on our counter attack from Carter over to Boje was fantastic.”

Cuttler made one more save with a minute remaining to secure the shutout.

In the game’s ninth minute, Freeport appeared to take the lead when Dylan Meinert put the ball into the net, but he was ruled offsides.

“I can’t see it from here, but it was close, it was very close,” Mills said of the call. “It was a game of small margins.”

In the 20th minute, Cuttler stopped another Meinhert shot.

The Patriots look forward to their rematch with the Clippers, who beat them 3-0 on Sept. 9.

“We are going to come out and we aren’t going to expect to lose,” Richmond said. “We are going to expect to put up a hard fight. We kept them 1-0 for 40 minutes here the first time we played them.”