GUILFORD – Piscataquis Community High School’s senior captain, Kyle Pulkkinen, used his big-game experience to lead the Pirates to a 3-2 victory over Washington Academy of East Machias to move on to the Eastern Maine Class C championship.

With his two second-half goals, the Pirates overcame a 2-1 halftime deficit in the soccer divisional crossover to earn their second Eastern Maine championship appearance in as many years. The championship appearance is PCHS’ fourth in eight years.

Tough competition was the name of the game all day Saturday for the No. 1 Pirates. Despite out-shooting the No. 2 Raiders of East Machias 21-9 in the first period, the Pirates trailed 2-1 at the half.

But Pulkkinen, playing in an Eastern Maine Class C semifinal for the third straight year, knew he had to create opportunities for his team. Pulkkinen’s first goal came on what was supposed to be a cross pass from the right corner. Instead, the pass curled into the back left corner of the goal to tie the game at 2-2 seven minutes into the second half.

Pulkkinen came through again for the Pirates with 1:42 left in regulation. Again, he lobbed the ball in front of the goal, this time from the top of the penalty area, hoping a teammate would head the ball in. Instead, the ball sailed high and slipped past the outstretched hands of leaping Washington Academy goalie Barret Craven for the win.

“Whenever we score, we step it up a little more looking for the next goal,” said Pulkkinen. “We really wanted to go back to the Eastern Maine championship.”

Washington Academy struck first with two goals off senior Juan Cabau’s two first half assists. The exchange student, who briefly played semi-professional soccer in Spain before injuring his knees, came into the game with 20 assists for Washington Academy.

Cabau’s first assist was a cross directly in front of the goal to sophomore Whitney Stevens, who rifled the ball into the net just under 10 minutes into the contest. His second came minutes after PCHS had tied the game at one 1-1, when he crossed a pass from the right corner to waiting senior Max Weiss, who kicked the ball into the upper left-hand corner for the 2-1 lead.

PCHS’ first goal of the game came 30 minutes into the first half when junior Jon Prescott rebounded a blocked shot to tie the game at 1-1.

“They are the first team I have seen here that could pass and play soccer well,” said Cabau. “They are very good, they were better than us.”

John Luellen stopped nine of 14 shots while in goal for the Pirates. Craven stopped 13 of 33 PCHS shots for the 11-3-1 Raid.

Washington Academy head coach Troy Alley was proud of his team for coming as far as it did.

“We were in new territory. This was the first time we’ve ever had playoff wins,” said Alley. “We were beaten by the number one team on their home field in a close game. We put WA soccer on the map.”

Washington Academy beat Dexter (4-3) and Sumner of East Sullivan (4-1) to make their way to the semifinal game against PCHS.

This year’s Pirate squad still has fresh images of a 4-0 win over Calais in last year’s Eastern Maine final, but they know this is a different team and next Saturday will be a different game when they face No. 1 George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill.

Last year the Pirates were 15-0-1 heading into the game against Calais. This year, PCHS has a hard-earned 10-3-3 record under first-year head coach Peter Nelson.

“We’ve waited all season for our chance to go back,” said senior Kyle Pulkkinen. “It was anybody’s league this year. We had a lot of very tough competition getting this far.”