Aug. 29, 1923 – New England championship match announced (Saco United v Abbot Worsted, on Labor Day). “Soccer Takes Firm Grip in Maine”

Saco United finished the first half of the Maine League season unbeaten, challenging Forge Village’s Abbot Worsted, which had won the New England title. “Saco United contends that no Massachusetts team can claim that title until it has played a game with the Maine champions,” according to Aug. 30, 1923 editions of The Boston Globe.

The story noted soccer was also going strong in “Biddedford, Lewiston, Rumford and other cities.” The Saco United front line “contains three of the Rankins, Tommy, Sammy, and Johnny, and each one is a soccer player of more than ordinary ability. Boston fans have seen some of them in action.”

Maine’s top player of recent years has been Roger Levesque, born in Portland, who played at Stanford University and won three U.S. Open Cup titles with the Seattle Sounders (2009-11).

TODAY IN NEW ENGLAND SOCCER HISTORY