Garrett-Young sparks Pirates Top-ranked PCHS remains unbeaten with win over Sumner

GUILFORD – For much of the early part of the season, the Piscataquis boys soccer team couldn’t figure out a way to win on a consistent basis. Not that they were losing games. In fact, through their first nine games the Pirates were undefeated. The sticking point, as far as coach Pete Nelson was concerned, was that five of those games were ties.

But from that point the Pirates reeled off five-straight wins to close out the regular season with a 9-0-5 record and earned the top seed in Eastern Maine Class C. They continued the winning steak Thursday with a hard-earned 2-1 quarterfinal win over eighth-seeded Sumner of East Sullivan.

“I joked with people that we could be the only undefeated team without a win,” Nelson said. “But after a while it wasn’t funny.”

John Garrett-Young and Harper Hoffman scored goals to lead the Pirates into the semifinals where they will play the winner of today’s Penquis of Milo and Central of Corinth matchup on Tuesday.

The eighth-seeded Tigers jumped out to a lead after just seven minutes had been played. Will Seyffer took control of the ball approximately 25 yards from the Piscataquis goal and laid off a pass on his right to Christian Knoeler who fired from the top of the penalty box and placed the ball inside the left post.

“We’ve been known to kinda come out flat,” Nelson said. “We’re used to coming back from a goal down. This team I have is extraordinary. They don’t get down. They play harder.”

Piscataquis struck back 10 minutes later off a corner kick from junior Chase Burdin that found Garrett-Young in the middle of the box who headed it past Sumner keeper Carlos Velencia.

The Pirates took the lead for good 10 minutes later. This time it Garrett-Young who played provider with a throw in from the left side to senior Harper Hoffman. Hoffman had his back to the goal 12 yards out and his back header floated just under the crossbar.

“We’re taught to look for each other and we’ve been doing that and we’ve been playing excellent that way,” Garrett-Young said.

The Pirates also played a dominant defensive game effectively stopping Seyffer at every turn following his early success.

“They did a good job,” Seyffer said. “The whole team kinda got down I felt a little bit [after falling behind]. We tried to pick it up but it just wasn’t working.”

Velencia made six saves on 16 shots while Piscataquis goalie Josh Luellen made one save on six Sumner shots.

The 6-7-3 Tigers were bolstered by a large crowd and drum section that made the trip to Guilford.

“Our win [over Searsport last Tuesday in a preliminary game] was the first Sumner has had [in the tournament] since 1989. Maybe we’ve brought soccer back to life at Sumner,” coach John Frye said.