OAKLAND — Some things in life, you just know. You have a feeling. Call it your gut, or call it experience. Sometimes you just know something is going to happen.

The Bangor High girls soccer team didn’t need a sixth sense or a Magic 8-Ball to guess how the season would play out. The Rams expected that if they made it through their Class A North schedule gauntlet, Scarborough would be waiting for them in the state championship game. They’ve thought as much since facing Scarborough in the preseason.

“We just kind of knew we’re going to see them again,” said Bangor senior back Avery Clark, one of her team’s captains.

Occam’s razor, right? The simplest explanation is the most likely. When you’ve thought of probable state championship matchups in Class A girls soccer in recent years, you’ve thought of the Rams and Red Storm.

Saturday’s championship game, won 1-0 by Bangor, was the third consecutive Class A girls soccer final between the two teams. It’s the second time in 15 years that Bangor and Scarborough have met in three straight state championship games. Saturday’s win gave Bangor back-to-back state titles after Scarborough won it in 2023. When they met in 2010, 2011 and 2012, Scarborough bookended a pair of wins around a Bangor title in 2011.

Saturday was Scarborough’s 10 appearance in a state final in the last 15 seasons. For Bangor, it was the eighth trip in that span. The schools are approximately 140 miles from each other, and there’s no guarantee they’ll play each other in any season, aside from preseason games they often schedule. Still, it’s a rivalry. When the Gold Ball is on the line every time you play, of course it’s a rivalry.

“We know it will be a competitive game. It’s a game we work toward all season. Obviously, the state championship is the best we can do,” said Bangor senior midfielder Clara Oldenburg, another one of the Rams’ captains. “We kind of know it’s going to be Scarborough, because for three years, it has been. It’s just a game we look forward to.”

Oldenburg had a hand in the game’s only goal. Her shot late in the first half was stopped by Red Storm keeper Vera DiSotto, but the rebound went directly to the right foot of Bangor’s Georgia Stephenson, who couldn’t ask for a better scoring opportunity and planted the ball in the net.

Last year as a freshman, Stephenson scored a pair of goals in Bangor’s 3-1 state final victory. Future generations of Scarborough families will tell tale tales about her. If you don’t eat your veggies, Georgia Stephenson will get you.

Jay Kemble just completed his third season as Bangor’s coach. His team has faced Scarborough in the state final each time. After the game, he said everything a coach should say. You can’t look ahead. You can’t assume anything. You need to do all the little things to accomplish the big things.

That’s all true, but you know if you take care of business in the North, it’ll probably be the Red Storm waiting on that final Saturday of the season. You see their scores all season. You know they see yours.

“We don’t worry about that until we win that Northern Maine championship. We play the southern schools so much in the summer (and) preseason,” Kemble said. “You understand their style of play, their physicality, who’s the better players and what their roles are.”

When it comes to Bangor and Scarborough, there isn’t a best team, Oldenburg said. It’s who is better in that game? Which team makes fewer mistakes and plays with more intensity?

“Those are two things that we can control. Even though we worked all season, we want to make sure we can control the things we focus on,” she said. “We actually make a list of things we can control and focus on. If we’re disciplined and do those things, it will come around.”

This year, the maybe-once-a-season rivalry went to the Rams. You know both teams are already looking forward to next year.