Class B soccer: Defense doing the job for Winslow

John Bapst’s Oscar Martinez struggles to keep up with Winslow’s Ethan Loubier (7) in the Class B North boys soccer championship Wednesday at Hampden Academy. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

HAMPDEN — An advanced analytics department isn’t required for providing context to the season the Winslow boys soccer team enjoyed in 2021.

The Class B North champion Black Raiders roll into Saturday’s state championship game against South regional champion Yarmouth as the most dominant team in all of Class B this fall. Winslow went a perfect 14-0-0 in the regular season and scored 78 goals — an average of more than 5.5 goals per contest. In the playoffs, the Raiders have only been better.

In their four victories en route to the regional crown, Winslow blitzed the competition by a combined 24-0 count.

Remarkably, even that isn’t Winslow’s most incredible achievement. There’s another number that tells even more.

That number? 1.

One, as in the number of goals allowed this season by the Black Raiders. One goal. One total goal.

That’s a 102-1 scoreline in their 18 games thus far this season for those counting along at home.

“Yeah, that’s pretty good,” said senior center back Kris Loubier, making the understatement of a lifetime. “Our defense is really solid. We’ve done a really good job.”

In the regional final against John Bapst on Wednesday, Winslow took a 1-0 lead less than five minutes into the contest. There aren’t many teams who can feel like their work is done for the night with just a single goal to work with, but certainly Winslow head coach Aaron Wolfe would be in a very select group of coaches who could be confident with a narrow one-goal lead with 75 minutes still to negotiate.

Winslow hasn’t allowed a goal against since the third game of the season, now posting 15 consecutive clean sheets.

“I don’t think you ever feel comfortable in any playoff game,” Wolfe said. “Maybe you get a little more defensive, but you want to make sure you act like it’s 0-0. It’s been a team effort. It’s not one or two players that dominate and take care of everything. We have six solid defenders and a really good keeper, so that makes it easy.”

Loubier partners with fellow senior Zack St. Pierre to form a formidable center back pairing. Senior Ben Tilton and junior Lucas Boucher are the starting outside backs. Junior Jason Reynolds, who has been credited with all 18 shutouts, is the goalkeeper.

Winslow hasn’t reinvented defensive philosophy or come up with an unorthodox formation in the back. The Raiders have featured a flat four — a pair of center backs flanked by an outside back on each side — and simply been better at defending than opposing teams have been at attacking.

With midfielders like Levi Olin and Ethan Loubier, Kris’ brother, in front of the four, it’s added another difficult layer for the opposition to find a way through.

“It’s been flat-four for the past three years that I’ve been here,” Reynolds said. “They’ve changed it since Kris and Zack’s freshman year, and since then we’ve just taken off with it.
“We’ve worked together and been together as a team for so long, we’ve gotten to a point where we don’t really have to communicate out there. We can just play, and we know what to do,”

The one goal Winslow allowed came against Belfast, late in the first half with a 4-0 lead already built, fewer than 200 minutes into the 1,440 the team has completed this season. Winslow went on to win that game 7-1.

With all the gaudy offensive numbers Winslow has posted, is it possible that this defense is somehow overlooked?

“I don’t think so.” Kris Loubier said. “We get a lot of credit. Giving up one goal all season — I mean, that’s pretty good. Our offense is just as good as our defense. It’s just really good communication and some good, quick, solid defenders that give us chances to get stops.”

Reynolds, however, disagrees. He thinks the defenders don’t get enough credit for the team’s success.

“Definitely, it is (overlooked),” Reynolds said. “From a fan’s perspective, they say ‘Jason’s done it all.’ But that’s not true at all. The (backs) have done it all.”