Ambitious Hampden knocks off Vikes

HAMPDEN – For Hampden Academy senior Amy Jo Crawford, winning is no longer good enough. Crawford wants to win big.

After her undefeated soccer team notched its fifth-straight win, 4-1 over Caribou Saturday, Crawford still was talking about what the Broncos needed to do better.

“We’re 5-0. A lot of games we feel we could have played a lot better. We beat Old Town 4-3. We dominated most of the game. We should have been 6-3 or 6-2,” Crawford said. “Coach says the same things: intensity, communication. If we do the things he says, we can pull it out.”

Saturday Hampden showed the second-half intensity Broncos coach Randy Dodge wants. The Broncos turned a 2-1 advantage into a 4-1 triumph with late goals by Meghan Silver and Crawford.

The Broncos’ defense rarely let the ball pass the midfield mark while their offense outshot the Vikings 16-3. However, the game-winner was virtually a gimme – and that left the Broncos wanting more.

After Hampden’s Amanda Burrill nailed in a goal off a Hampden corner 16 minutes, 52 seconds into the first half, the Broncos were awarded a penalty shot on a hand-ball. With 5:39 left in the half, Crawford beat Caribou goalie Meaghan Lombard with a rising shot.

The easy score gave Hampden an edge, but seemed to harden Caribou. The Vikings charged down the field just 1:19 later when Caitlin Harrigan sent it up to the 50-yard line. Jennifer Corey passed to Sabrina Butler and the sophomore got past Hampden back Brie Drummond and keeper Lisa Groesenek to cut Hampden’s lead to 2-1.

Then Caribou let up.

“I’m disappointed,” Butler said. “We could have won. We let up after the first goal.”

Hampden, on the other hand, came out of halftime more focused. For the first time this season, the Broncos became more aggressive in the second half.

Burrill said in the past, the Broncos have gone into halftime with comfortable, mulitple-goal leads. She said Saturday’s one-goal advantage made them want to work.

“We haven’t played a solid 40 minutes in the second half. They’re setting high expectations,” Dodge said. “We’ve had close games. We sit back. Today, they were focused. After the last game, they had the riot act read by coach. They set the tempo today.”

Hampden’s Groesenek stopped two of three shots to earn the win while Caribou keeper Lombard made 12 saves.

The loss dropped Caribou to 3-5 and cut down its playoff chances.

“We were geared up for this,” Caribou coach Lynn Hartley said. “We need a big win bad to come close to playoffs. The end of the first half we ran out of energy. As we got tired, things didn’t click.”