Peet’s play helps UM-Farmington shut out Husson Jeff Beck scores goal for Beavers

BANGOR – It was another happy homecoming for University of Maine-Farmington goaltender Noah Peet.

The junior from Hampden Academy played a standout game between the goalposts to help the UMF Beavers beat his former school – Husson College – 1-0 at Boucher Soccer Field on a warm, sunny Wednesday afternoon.

“I went to Husson my freshman year, so I know a lot of these guys,” said Peet, who turned aside nine of 15 shots. “I like coming back here. It’s fun to beat them.”

It was anything but fun for Husson coach Scott Warman in the first half as he watched his team continuously get beaten to the ball while the Beavers controlled the ball and kept the action on the Braves’ side of the field for at least 35 of the half’s 45 minutes.

“We’re dominated by sophomores and freshmen and in the first half, we didn’t come to play. Farmington exposed our weaknesses, especially our slowness in play,” Warman said. “In the second half, we picked it up. The first 20 minutes, we controlled the action … Until that goal. That kind of deflated us.”

Ah yes, the second half … A much better topic of discussion if you’re a Braves fan, despite the fact that it was the only half in which the Beavers scored.

After being outshot 14-2 in the first half and feeling justifiably fortunate they weren’t down 3-0, the Braves (4-3, 0-1 NAC) held their own in the second as UMF held a slight 14-13 advantage.

Three of those shots came in a 90-second span about 18 minutes into the second half when Peet acrobatically saved three Braves shots off corner kicks.

“I think on those corner kicks, when our guy in the post made the save, that kind of woke us up a bit and made us realize this could go the other way quickly,” said coach Jamie Beaudoin, whose Beavers are 3-3-1 overall, 2-1 in the North Atlantic Conference.

Outside midfielder Jeff Beck scored the game’s only goal off a pretty, cross-field pass from the right side by stopper Zack Pettit with 23:39 to play.

“They went flat with six guys across the 18. I saw the opportunity and [Pettit] played a beautiful ball and got it over,” said Beck. “I came around and inside and then put it in from about 12 yards out.”

Beck got the pass and kicked it in midstride high and dead center in the net.

Husson goalie Matt Goodman made several highlight-reel saves including two lunging fingertip deflections en route to 13 saves in the game.