December 23, 2024
HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER

Line change helps ‘Cats tip Witches Presque Isle teams earn sweep of Brewer squads

BREWER – After a disappointing shutout loss to Bangor Saturday, the Presque Isle boys soccer team was looking for a lift and a little more offense in Tuesday’s game against Brewer.

So the Wildcats changed their field alignment to put one more player on the front line. That generated more chances in the flow of the game, but Presque Isle went back to what was working for them – set plays and restarts.

Trevor Graves scored the game-winning goal 49 seconds into the second overtime as the Wildcats topped the Witches 2-1 in a Class A matchup at the Pendleton Street field.

The Presque Isle girls picked up a 4-0 victory over Brewer in the second game of the doubleheader.

The Presque Isle boys go to 10-1 with three games left in its season. Brewer falls to 3-4-1.

It should be a point-worthy win for the Wildcats, and also help boost their confidence.

“Especially coming off the loss,” sweeper Luke Blackstone said.

Graves, who sat out part of the second half because of a yellow card, scored his winner after a direct kick. That’s also how the ‘Cats scored their first goal.

Ben Lynch started the winning play with his kick from outside the 18-yard line. Ben Deschene got a head on the ball and skipped it to Graves, who kicked it in.

“It just happened that I got a nice little volley on it and it went over the goalie’s head,” he said.

Kyle James, who leads PI with 15 goals, booted a direct kick past Brewer goalie Matt Quimby with 16:30 left in the first half to take the lead.

James, who takes most of the Wildcats’ free kicks, hit the post on one in the second half.

“Kyle’s got a big foot and that helps out a lot on direct kicks,” Blackstone said. “He can place it, he can pound it, he can do whatever he wants.”

Brewer’s starting defense of Zack Bouzan-Kaloustian, Andy Frost, Zack Lingley and Peter McGuire stopped a lot of Presque Isle runs.

“We didn’t do anything special, paying special attention or marking [Graves and James],” Brewer coach Darren Hall said. “They didn’t really get anything other than out of set plays. If we eliminate the fouls we’d be in good shape.”

Brewer looked strong in the first half and outshot Presque Isle 8-5. The Wildcats came back with a 13-4 advantage in the second half, but Brewer’s Quimby made six saves in that period. He finished with seven stops on 19 shots.

About eight minutes after James’ goal, Frost dribbled through the Wildcat defense and shot the ball to the right post. Presque Isle goalkeeper Ben Sirois (three saves on 14 shots) dove to make a stop but the ball was too wide for his reach. That tied the game.

There were more than 40 fouls called in the game, including one yellow card for each team.

Presque Isle 4, Brewer 0

At Pendleton Street field in Brewer, Billi Blanchard led the way with a goal and an assist to help the Wildcats go to 8-3-1.

Katie Delong, Marigan Bishop and Lauren Wildeman also scored for Presque Isle. Nicole McKenna and Ashley Berube each added an assist. Melissa Demerchant made five saves on five shots.

Katie Harris stopped 15 of 19 shots for the 2-6 Witches.


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