Broncs, Vikings battle Hampden girls tie; boys lose

HAMPDEN – Hampden Academy boys and girls soccer coaches Waldo Caballero and Randy Dodge knew their playoff aspirations were at stake when their teams entertained Caribou on a wind-swept afternoon here Monday.

Dodge was the happier of the two men at the dinner table Monday evening as his girls rallied from 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3 deficits to earn a 4-4 tie while Caballero’s Hampden boys suffered a 2-0 setback despite outshooting the Vikings 31-9.

“I think that will put us in,” said Dodge, whose Broncos finished up at 7-5-2. Caribou is 9-3-2.

“I’m tickled to death with the tie. We could have folded our tent at 3-1 but the girls showed a lot of heart and desire,” said Dodge.

“We knew we couldn’t afford to lose this game,” said Bronco senior midfielder Bethany Atkins, who keyed the rally with a pair of second-half goals.

Senior fullback-striker Kerry Ryerson, who tied the game with 16:22 remaining, said the 3-1 deficit didn’t deter them.

“We had a lot of intensity and we wanted the game even more after we fell behind,” said Ryerson.

The Bronco girls had an edge in territorial play but the Caribou girls were very dangerous on counter attacks.

Caribou scored on two of its three corner kicks as stopper Erin Cole-Karagory, playing despite a possible broken knuckle suffered early in the game, curled a pair into the net.

“She takes great corner kicks,” said Hampden goalie Shilo Marden.

Christine Solman opened the scoring by knocking home the rebound of a Cole-Karagory shot off the post. Chelsea Belanger made it 2-0 with a high left wing cross that sailed over Marden’s head.

Katie Fraser cut the lead in half with 13:16 left in the half as she drove a Meghan Williams through ball in off goalie Sue Peterson but Cole-Karagory answered 6:43 later.

Atkins tied it with goals 2:27 apart as she sailed a 22-yard free kick in off the hands of Peterson and nailed a penalty kick after Peterson was called for charging Fraser in the penalty area. Fraser suffered a leg injury in the collision.

Cole-Karagory’s second corner kick goal gave Caribou a 4-3 lead with 22:06 left but Ryerson tied it up with a long, high 25-yard shot.

“I wanted to hit it more direct. I got under it,” said Ryerson.

“As I went up for the ball, one of their girls hit me in the shin guards and knocked me down,” said Peterson.

Both teams had 24 shots with Marden making six saves and Peterson making five.

In the boys game, senior striker Ken Lund set up fullback Jesse Young’s goal with his corner kick and added an insurance goal off a direct kick seven minutes later to help Caribou improve its record to 7-3-4. Hampden is now 4-6-3.

“We played well but we just didn’t finish,” said Caballero.

The six-foot-five Chris Funk made nine saves on 27 shots before Jason St. Peter came on to make two on four in the final five minutes.

Funk made an excellent diving save early in the game off Cory Nicholson’s low 18-yarder labeled for the corner to Funk’s right.

“I didn’t get enough on it. He’s tall and he got over and covered it,” said Nicholson. “He’s the best goalie I’ve seen in Eastern Maine.”

Young’s goal came 5:12 into the second half when Lund’s corner “hit me in the back of the head (and went in).” It was his first goal of the year.

Lund scored 5:21 later when his rising 35-yarder went in off the hands of Hampden goalie Dan Martin.

“He was short and he came out too far so it went over him,” said Lund, whose goal was his 10th of the season.

Hampden’s Dan Washburn sailed a penalty kick over the crossbar with 22:39 left.