Yes sir, this soccer player can certainly throw the ball

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ELLSWORTH – Whew, what a game! Ellsworth had to battle, but the unbeaten Eagles pulled out a 3-1 win over a tire iron-tough Fort Kent club in Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class B boys soccer championship.

Man, that Andy Higgins, the center half for Ellsworth, you gotta see the way this kid throws the ball. What velocity!

What’s that you say? Yeah, I said soccer… No, I’m not suffering from World Series flashbacks… Yeah, I said throw the ball.

Just because it isn’t every day you hear about a soccer game being decided, not with feet, but by the ability of a player to pick up a ball that’s been kicked out of bounds, raise it behind his head using both hands, then catapult it back into play, an act succintly known as the throw-in, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It happened at Del Luce Stadium.

“The throw-in was their whole offense,” sighed frustrated Fort Kent coach Dave Minzy after watching Ellsworth improve to 6-2 in eight epic postseason collisions with the Warriors dating back to 1976. “I knew he had a long throw-in. I’d seen it before. Although we practiced against it, it’s awful difficult to defend when you get into a game.”

Here’s how Higgins rendered Fort Kent’s gritty defense defenseless:

The first one came three minutes into the contest. Higgins got the ball from the ballboy outside the left sideline about even with the six-yard line. He backed up six or seven yards then started running toward the sideline, drawing the ball behind his head and arching his back as he gained momentum. The instant before he reached the sideline at a full run, WHAM, he stopped dead and uncoiled.

The field is 70 yards wide, which means it’s 35 yards to the center of the goal. The ball sizzled on a line beyond the center of the goal. It was just high enough so leaping Fort Kent defenders could not reach it to head it away. It descended just enough for Eagle fullback Kurt Harriman, unmarked and rushing toward the goalmouth from the 18-yard line, to head the ball into the right side of the net.

Ellsworth 1, Fort Kent 0.

Throw-in No. 2 came 26 seconds after Fort Kent scored to tie the game early in the second half.

Same left side of the field. Same running start. Same whistling throw-in by Higgins. Only this time the ball moved so fast Harriman could only graze it with the top of his head. Another Eagle player, Travis Coffin, headed the deflected ball past stunned Warrior goalie Corey Thibodeau into the right side of the net.

Ellsworth 2, Fort Kent 1.

Higgins’ threepeat came with 9:44 remaining. Same sideline. Same bullet throw-in. Same result. This time Coffin cleanly headed in the missile.

Ball game.

“I guess its hereditary,” shrugged Higgins, when asked to explain his uncanny ability. “My brother, when he played, could throw like that. I’ve tried to be better than him. The adrenaline was pumping today so they were going farther than usual.”

Higgins’ older brother, Danny, a fine player for the Eagles back in the early 1980s and now a teacher and coach, watched the whole thing from the sideline. He shook his head.

“I could throw, but not like Andy,” he said.

What makes Higgins’ ability so astounding is that there is no apparent physical explanation. He stands 5-foot-8. He weighs 150 pounds in his cleats.

“I’ve never lifted a weight in my life,” he shot back, when asked.

Veteran Eagles coach Brian Higgins, who has seen 20 seasons worth of players and very few capable of throwing-in like Higgins, could offer no explanation.

“Some kids have the knack for it and some don’t,” said the coach, who is not related to the player. “I can’t throw the ball inside the penalty area. Some physiologist would have to tell you what it is, whether it’s snapping the back or the wrist snap.”

Of course, practice helps. And Andy Higgins admits he does practice.

“I try to do 100 throws every weekend at my house off the garage door. Even in the offseason I try to do something,” he said.

Whatever Higgins does, the Eagles hope he just keeps doing it.

“It’s certainly a weapon,” said Brian Higgins. “If you’ve got a guy who can throw the ball in like that, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got scorers on the field or not.”

The coach makes maximum use of Higgins. Anytime the ball goes out of bounds from the Ellsworth bench to the opposing goal, it is automatic. Higgins must throw it in.

“He’s had a hurt leg for two weeks now,” said the coach, referring to a deep bruise Higgins suffered in a game against MDI. “But with him hurt running at one-third speed, even if it means we’re playing a man short on the field, to be able to have that valuable throw-in is worth it. It was certainly the difference in the game today.”

Yes, as Fort Kent can attest, it certainly was.