Most years, the Bangor boys soccer team is a contender and a lock to at least finish as one of the top teams in Eastern Maine Class A.
If the Rams are going to continue on the same level of success, they’ll have to do it without at least four of their key players.
Starters Mike Larochelle, Alex McManus, Tim Woodcock and Jessefa Murphy are expected to miss most, if not all, of the season. In addition, Dylan George can only play in spurts of time.
Leach said Woodcock and Murphy are out for the season, while McManus and Larochelle could return by the end of the regular season. George should be healthy with enough time and rest.
Coach Adam Leach said the team is still searching for some cohesion.
“It hasn’t gelled. It hasn’t clicked. We just need time,” he said after a recent game against Old Town.
The Rams are 3-3 going into today’s game against John Bapst of Bangor.
Woodcock, a senior stopper, is out with a torn meniscus (knee). Senior Larochelle, a midfielder and captain, has a broken foot. Senior midfielder Alex McManus has a broken bone in his leg, and sophomore forward George has a stress fracture and can only play 10 minutes at a time.
Murphy, a junior who assumed the starting goalie role this year, suffered a concussion and a broken rib in Bangor’s season-opener against Hampden.
“It’s probably my most talented forward, two of my most talented mids (midfielders), my stopper back and my goalie,” Leach said. “So it’s right down the guts of the field. It’s hard. Those are the guys to build around, not to replace.”
Sophomore Austin Smith, who was to be a midfielder going into the season, has stepped into the goalie position.
Hampden’s turf a hit for soccer
The Hampden Academy football team may have had the first official game of the high school season on the school’s new artificial surface field, but local high school soccer and field hockey teams have also been enjoying the opportunity to play at the stadium.
And with at least one set of state soccer championship games being played on an artificial surface in Northport, it gives those local teams a chance to get a preview of the FieldTurf.
“We have nothing to prepare on, nothing that we can practice on, so we’re just going to do what we can do,” said Old Town boys coach Mark Graffam, whose Indians are scheduled for a game in Hampden today. “We’ll just play the best we can. That’s a great type of field.”
Graffam said some of his players have a little experience on a similar surface from playing at the Maine Sports Complex in Hampden, which has Sprinturf. Many other players in the area have played there, too.
Nevertheless, the Broncos feel they have an advantage from playing on the turf regularly.
“For some teams it’s hard to adjust when you’re playing on it for the first time,” said Hampden forward Bud Bridges. “Our strength is passing so when we get on a field like this it helps us even more.”
Hampden girls soccer coach Dewey Martin said his team loves to play on the field, too.
“We try to play possession soccer, we teach these kids to play with control and to keep the ball on the ground,” he said. “You never get a bad bounce. Every bounce is a true bounce. So you want to play your game, you can play it on this field.”
Bangor boys coach Adam Leach said the Hampden field has Ram supporters wondering if there’s a way for Bangor to have an artificial turf field of its own.
“It’s fantastic. There’s some talk going around town that now that Hampden’s got one, we want one, too,” he said.
A new field is on the minds of the Bangor staff and players because both the Rams boys and girls teams practice and play on the same field, and its condition is deteriorating, Leach said.
“If the city of Bangor could do one thing for us, it would be to get us another field this size [68 feet by 110 feet],” he added. “Even a practice surface, so we could let this one recover.”
Lainez makes transition
For one member of the Bangor girls soccer team, Saturday’s 8-1 victory over Brewer was even more special.
Danielle Lainez, who transferred from Brewer to Bangor for her senior year, had never before won a night game at the Witches’ Doyle Field. Now the Rams’ starting sweeper, Lainez had a key role in the victory.
“I was really excited. I’ve always wanted to win under the lights on this field and I finally did. We looked forward to this game and I know they did, too.”
Lainez and her family moved from Brewer to Bangor this summer.
She hugged Brewer standout Amy Freeman in a pre-game meeting and said ‘hi’ to her former teammates during post-game handshakes.
“We’ve known each other for five years and we’ve just been really good friends,” Lainez said.
As good as Lainez is on the soccer field, she’s even better scoring in the triple jump, pole vault, high jump and hurdles in track and field meets. She said she plans to do both indoor and outdoor track for Bangor this year.
Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.
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