March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Witches win 3rd straight> Discipline fuels run

NEWPORT – Using a pair of corner kicks to its advantage, and in spite of a small field, Brewer rose above the .500 mark for the first time in two weeks Monday, beating Nokomis 2-0 for its third consecutive schoolboy soccer win.

The smooth sailing, which included Friday’s 2-1 upset of previously undefeated Hampden, comes after the turbulence of nine suspensions levied 10 days ago.

“I think the discipline problems that we had earlier gave us a big boost because they woke up after that,” Brewer coach Mike Jeffrey said, declining to elaborate further on the reason for the suspensions. “We just had an incident on the bus and I suspended nine kids and they didn’t play against Presque Isle.

“I brought eight JV kids up, they played against Presque Isle, and the JV team had to go to MDI and they lost 8-0 because I had those eight kids, so it had a wicked ripple effect,” he continued. “They [the suspended players] apologized and their approach is a little different. They had gotten a little complacent.”

Following the suspensions, Brewer rattled off a 3-1 win against Orono to start the streak.

“That brought us closer together,” said junior Joshua Schwartz, who had the game-winning goal and an assist Monday. “I guess it did because we stuck up for each other. This might be our coach’s last year, so we didn’t want it to end like that.”

Brewer got off 17 shots and seven corner kicks against the Warriors, who drop to 1-8-1, as Nokomis keeper Nick Wallace made eight saves.

“Once I knew we were on this small field, I knew we were in trouble because we just weren’t going to have a lot of space to do things,” Jeffrey said. “We worked real hard at hitting our target man and then laying it off.”

Brewer scored with 16:05 remaining in the first half when Schwartz corraled a corner kick from Bob Seiring low on the far post for the score after Wallace had deflected the ball back.

Schwartz had the assist on Jason Fish’s goal 1:54 into the second half, when Fish headed the ball into the net on a corner kick for a 2-0 Brewer lead.

In the end, the 2-0 loss was better than Nokomis coach Lou Janicki had hoped.

“Mike Jeffrey plays a controlled, knock it around the midfield and then set up, and my kids are not as skilled as the Brewer kids,” he said. “We have a strong defense and then we try to counterattack.

“We played them much slower than we did last year when the kids had no skills, and the kids are getting better, but that’s our style,” Janicki said.

Nokomis’ best scoring chance came with 19:43 remaining in the first half when senior striker Josh Harris broke loose on the right side and Brewer keeper David Johnson came out to challenge. Harris shot from about 12 yards out but Johnson, who had five saves on six Warrior shots, dove and smothered the shot.


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