Graves powers Presque Isle Wildcats shut out rival Vikings

PRESQUE ISLE – After an early series of offensive missteps, the Presque Isle boys soccer team righted itself just in time to score a goal, gain the momentum and roll to a win Tuesday night.

Trevor Graves scored two first-half goals and assisted on another as the Wildcats earned a 4-0 victory over their rival Caribou Vikings in a high school game at the Skyway Middle School complex.

Presque Isle goes to 3-0 while Caribou drops to 1-1.

The game was played in cool, windy, misty conditions, which PI coach Scott Young said could have contributed to the Wildcats early troubles getting their footing. More likely, though, it was some early nerves.

“We started off really slow and picked it up in the middle of the first half and started to play better,” Graves said. “We got our guys pumped up a little.”

Graves and Kyle James, Graves’ mate on the front line, had a series of close calls in which they mistimed a shot or hit the crossbar. That was dangerous, as Caribou got off more shots and had better chances, but also came up short.

Everything turned around when the Wildcats got a 1-0 lead on a fluke goal with 21:42 left in the first half. Graves was credited with the score, which started with a shot on goal by midfielder Ben Lynch. Viking goalie Micah Maurio saved the shot initially, but the ball ricocheted into the net. Graves was in position to re-shoot the ball if it hadn’t gone in, and he was credited with the goal.

James showed off his speed with his goal, which came about seven minutes later. After a pass from Graves, James zoomed past a Caribou defender and kicked the ball past Maurio. Graves scored again with 7:02 left for a 3-0 lead.

“Kyle James is fast and he has a lot of skill. No question he was a marked man,” Caribou coach Mark Shea said. “He was a marked man for the whole game. We knew he was their biggest weapon. [Brandon Thompson] did an excellent job on him, but there’s no question some of our other defenders didn’t mark up as well as they should have and Trevor Graves had a great game because of that.”

Ben Deschene scored Presque Isle’s second-half goal on a penalty kick. Although the Wildcats had a decided edge in possession and shots (13-1) they were unable to score the rest of the way.

PI’s Ben Sirois and Brad Baker combined to save seven of 12 shots. Sirois, who played the first half, stopped six of 11. Maurio made eight saves on 27 shots.