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BRANDON — When it comes to championships, two is twice as nice for the Long Beach Bearcats.

Behind a steady offensive onslaught, Long Beach raced past New Hope 4-1 to claim the MHSAA Boys Class 5A State Championship Saturday night at Brandon’s Bulldog Stadium.

It’s the Bearcats (17-2-1) second consecutive Class 5A championship and second title in school history.

“The kids have worked real hard and to get here five years in a row," Long Beach coach And Wilburn said. "It's extremely difficult and going through and getting back to back is huge. Every year is a new team and new kids, so they have a mind set to get it done and I’m proud of them for that.”

Early on, it looked like they were going to be denied. New Hope scored first on a penalty kick by Robert Parnell seven minutes into the game to give the Trojans an early 1-0 lead.

But Long Beach tied the game with 22 minutes left in the first half, as Ethan Myers scored on a free kick.

The Bearcats took the lead at 2-1 four minutes later, as Landon Vancourt scored off a deflection.

Vancourt assisted on the next goal for Long Beach as his cross to Ethan Laborde led to a goal that gave the Bearcats a 3-1 lead.

Dylan Kippes scored the final goal of the game off a pass from William Long to give the Bearcats the 4-1 lead in the 65th minute.

“We’re very balanced and got 10 guys that can score at any point and that’s been a big advantage for us,” Wilburn said. “We’re going to get back to work and do what we got to do to get back here.” 

Kippes was named the game’s most valuable player.

“I just wanted to play for the seniors cause they’ve played for state all four years and I enjoy seeing the smiles on their faces,” Kippes said. “We got to go back and work even harder to get back here next year. I’ll be a senior next year along with a bunch of others on this team, so we will be back.”

New Hope finished the season 18-4. The Trojans were in the 5A state title game for the first time in school history.

“We went up early and give Long Beach credit they came back and got us,” said New Hope coach Andrew Olsen. “We had a goal to get here since our season ended last year and now we got here we’ve got make it the standard of getting back here every year.”