WASHBURN – Things couldn’t have gone much better for the red-and-white clad lads and lasses from Fort Fairfield in the opening halves of their respective games at Washburn High School Saturday.

While the festivities of Washburn’s annual August Days’ celebration went on all around the high school fields on a warm, sunny afternoon, the visiting Tigers were doing their best to be the lone fly in Washburn’s otherwise enjoyable ointment.

The boys built up a 3-0 halftime lead behind two goals by Mickey Browning while over on the adjoining field, standout Miranda Butler had an early hat trick as she scored all of the Tigers’ goals to give them a 3-1 halftime advantage.

But a funny thing happened before both games ended. The young Washburn girls – not knowing a team with an entire front line of sophomores, three first-year senior players, and several other untested freshmen and juniors in the lineup weren’t supposed to have the fortitude to stage a comeback – staged a comeback.

While Fort Fairfield’s veteran boys team put the finishing touches on an impressive 4-0 win, Washburn’s girls scored three unanswered goals in the final 24 minutes to pull out a 4-4 overtime tie.

“We just kept playing hard and kept our heads up. We didn’t get down about it,” said fullback Katie McIntosh, one of those senior rookies who’s playing soccer for the first time since middle school. “We seem to have a pattern. We play better in the second half than the first half. Maybe the pressure makes us play better, makes us try harder … Gets us all riled up.”

The improbably comeback by the Beavers, now 1-3-1, certainly riled up.

“We gave up in the second half. I think we got complacent and then they got a lucky break to get a goal. They got the momentum and we couldn’t get it back,” said coach Jay Edgecomb, whose Tigers are 1-1-1. “We actually pelted them at the end there, but it was too late.”

The rally seemed even more unlikely since it came on the heels of a missed Beavers’ penalty shot.

Just one minute, 44 seconds into the second half, Butler scored again, this time on a Jen Enman assist, to make it 4-1. Just under five minutes later, Liza Maynard let loose a penalty kick that appeared to have the right trajectory to score, but lunging Tigers’ goalie Dani Searles managed to get a finger or two from her left hand on the ball and deflect it away.

Despite the disappointment, the Beavers scored nine minutes later as Amber Blakney knocked in a header from Maynard. Another five minutes later, the Tigers were awarded a penalty kick and Butler took it. Her shot sailed just high enough over the net to miss with 19 minutes left to play.

With 8:34 to go, Blakney scored again, this time unassisted form the left wing to get Washburn within one goal of the Tigers. It was Anna Ouellette who would get the game-tying goal just 64 seconds later as she corralled a shot Searles deflected and booted a low shot past Searles into the left corner.

Searles made nine saves on 15 shots. Washburn’s Morgan Sickler, a transfer student from Deer Isle-Stonington, saved 11 of 15.

“We don’t have a lot of experience but we’re improving as we go,” said Beavers coach Leland Caron between shakes of his disbelieving head. “I don’t know what it is, but they’re a second half team and it’s kind of a neat thing with all the inexperience we have here.”

In the boys game, Browning teamed up with Eric Tornquist (two assists) to do most of the offensive damage for Fort Fairfield, but sophomore goalie Tyler Bernaiche also turned in a standout effort as he stood in for injured senior Ryan Babin, who turned his ankle in practice Friday.

Bernaiche stopped nine of 10 shots to notch the shutout. His performance, combined with the aggressive offense of the slick-passing Tigers, made it a long afternoon for Washburn.

“They just dominated this game with their ball control. It seemed like they had the ball eighty percent of the time,” said coach Larry Worcester, whose Beavers fall to 1-2-1. “I thought they played exceptional and we just didn’t seem to have an answer for them.”

The 3-0 Tigers outshot the Beavers 12-5 in the first half and 20-10 overall. After Browning scored the first goal on a Kris Osgood assist, Jesse Sayers made it 1-0 by booting in a deflected shot from Tornquist.

“I kicked it in and Jesse was right there in front of the goal. We’ve really been working on that,” Tornquist said. “I think getting up on ’em early helped us. We won a lot of 50-50 balls.”

Browning put another in from 20 feet out with 10:37 to go in the first half on a Ben Kilcollins assist. Ryan Helstrom capped the scoring with just 4:54 to play in the game as he blasted a feed from Tornquist into the net from 50 yards away.

“I think this was our best game because of the intensity,” said Tigers coach Dan Ayoob. “And I was pleased with the passing and our shooting opportunities.”