Fort Kent’s fast start edges Vikings Warriors record first victory

FORT KENT – Spirits were high on the sideline of the high school soccer field here Monday night – a little too high for some. As the Warrior girls zoomed out to a 2-0 lead over Caribou in the first half, Fort Kent players McKenzie Boucher and Ashley Pelletier screeched and screamed for the Warriors to keep up the offensive pressure.

Fort Kent coach Dan Cyr turned around and shot the girls a look.

“Will you two go over there?” he asked, tipping his head to a spot farther away from him, smiling the whole time.

Why not yell and scream? Despite some early-season injuries and a slight letdown in the second half, the vastly improved Warriors earned their first win of the year with a 2-1 victory over the Vikings.

Fort Kent is now 1-1-1 while Caribou falls to 1-2. Most teams in Aroostook County start their seasons early because of the mid-September harvest break.

Striker Jackie Masse (one of the injured players) came off the bench and scored the eventual game-winning goal when she chipped in a corner kick from Melissa Michaud with 7:03 left in the first half.

Masse strained her left groin during the Warriors’ game against Madawaska last week. She is a starter but Cyr wanted her to take it easy.

“It was stiff at first but it didn’t hurt,” Masse said.

With Fort Kent holding a 2-0 lead, Cyr felt his team took it a little easy in the second half. Caribou had two shots in the whole first half, but the Vikings came out much stronger after halftime.

First-year Caribou coach Todd Albert changed the team’s alignment from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3, but he wasn’t sure that made a bit of difference. The two-goal deficit, however, might have.

“We just knew we had to step it up and get into the game,” he said. “We had to start going to the ball hard.”

Indeed, the Vikes scored their only goal of the game just over six minutes into the second half, when striker Jenna Vincent booted in a ball from about 20 feet away parallel to the right endline (Molly Bell had the assist).

After Vincent made it 2-1, the two teams went back and forth, with each team getting off a solid run at the opposite goal. Fort Kent took back control with about 17 minutes left, although Caribou’s Lindsay Burlock got off a shot that sailed over the crossbar with 15 seconds left in the game.

“I think they really wanted it, but then we came back,” Warrior sweeper Rebecca Pelletier said.

Fort Kent goalie Heather Hartman made three saves on eight shots. Caribou’s Leah Drew stopped nine of 21 shots.

Becka Soucy got the Warriors started early, scoring two minutes, 49 seconds into the game. She booted the ball from just in front of the 18-yard line past a diving Drew.

Fort Kent dominated in the first half with 12 shots on Drew, who had to fall to the ground several times to stop hard-kicked balls. Meanwhile, the Vikings managed just one solid shot on Hartman and had trouble getting their offense organized in front of the goal.