Witch booters win long game > Second half may have lasted extra 13 minutes

The facial expressions after the game told the story of Saturday’s Bangor-Brewer boys soccer matchup.

-The ear-to-ear smiles. They were worn by the Brewer Witches who mobbed teammate Michael Lindstrom seconds after his nifty flick shot from inside the 18-yard line landed in the back of the goal with 2:42 left in the second overtime, giving the Witches a 2-1 victory at Union Street Field in Bangor.

-The looks of frustration. Those were the faces of the Bangor Rams, who for the fourth time in five games suffered a close, hard-fought loss to the Witches.

-The dumb-founded, quizzical looks. These were worn by a number of different people, ranging from Bangor High athletic director Steve Vanidestine to Coach Roger Reed and a number of parents who were keeping track of the time because Bangor’s scoreboard was being repaired. They were still trying to figure out how it took 53 minutes, including delays in the action for a yellow card and one injury, to play a 40-minute second half.

Each look may have been worn by somebody else had Jason Glidden’s long throw-in from the right side of the field for Brewer not deflected off a Bangor player and into the goal, tying the game at 1-1 with 4:14 “officially” left in the second half, according to referee Pedro Quint’s watch.

Bangor’s post-game beef was that the game should have ended before the goal was scored.

“We kept saying it was long,” shrugged Bangor Coach Roger Reed who said the game would not be protested. “If it happened, it happened because of human error. Like I told Steve, it was our own fault. We didn’t have a back-up clock. I think only Pedro knows the truth about the watch. He was the only one who knows where his watch was stopped and started.”

Quint scoffed at the notion that there was any problem with his time keeping.

“I started it and stopped it every time,” Quint said. “As far as I’m concerned, I think they’re saying I was cheating. It seems odd that Mr. Vanidestine would complain so vocally when he is responsible for making sure there was a timer there.”

Even with Bangor’s scoreboard at the repair shop, there was no official timer or official scorekeeper at midfield, as is common for most soccer games.

Quint added that, as official timer, he also stopped the clock whenever a ball was booted so far out of bounds that the ball boys had trouble catching up to the play. Quint said it happened “probably four or five times.”

“I wasn’t going to yell `stop the clock’,” Quint said. “T “I wasn’t going to yell `stop the clock’,” Quint said. “There was no official time so it was a waste of time.”

Stopping the clock for that reason is a referee’s judgement, according to rules interpretor Bryan Artes.

The post-game controversy tainted what was an excellent soccer match between two closely-matched teams.

After Bangor goalkeeper Tim Wright stymied some heavy Brewer pressure early in the first half, the Rams got on the board first in the closing seconds of the first half.

With Quint counting down the seconds, fullback George Wright booted a long direct kick toward the Brewer goal. Sophomore midfielder Tony Caristi headed the ball down into the lower left-hand corner of the goal, away from Brewer keeper Josh Dennis.

After some heavy Brewer pressure late in the extended second half, Glidden lofted a long throw-in toward the far post of the Bangor goal. The ball deflected off an unidentified Bangor player and into the net to tie the game.

Brewer dominated the first overtime with three consecutive corner kicks and a throw-in during the final two minutes.

Glidden, who missed most of last season with a broken leg, started the game-winning goal with another throw-in. The ball just missed a Bangor player’s head, deflected off the chest of Brewer’s Brian Colman, and Lundquist flicked a soft shot just over the outreached hands of Tim Wright.

“We didn’t quit,” said Brewer Coach Mike Jeffrey. “We just kept going and going and going. I felt that if we could get one in, we’d get them in overtime.”