Husson, UMF go scoreless Soccer stalemate has silver linings

BANGOR – After a game that saw bright afternoon sunshine turn to dusk and 110 minutes of college soccer go by without a single score, participants on both teams managed to find a silver lining to Wednesday afternoon’s double-overtime, scoreless tie.

For the Husson College women, it ended a two-game losing streak to the University of Maine at Farmington Beavers and continued improvement in their overall play. For the Beavers, it was a game to grow on and a noticeable improvement in their offensive flow.

The result wasn’t without its negatives either. The Eagles are still looking for their first win and feel like they let one get away, while 1-3-1 UMF was shut out for the third time in the last five games and is still struggling to find offense.

“We can be frustrated and disappointed, but not discouraged,” said Husson coach Keith Bosley, whose Eagles are now 0-3-2 despite having outshot opponents 58-33 in their last three games. “We know we’re playing a decent game and we know we’re getting better.”

Playing much better than decent games were Husson goaltender Leah Drew and the UMF freshman goalie tandem of Melissa Demerchant and Alix Raymond.

Drew, a sophomore from Caribou, made a couple of highlight reel-quality saves en route to 14 total stops while Presque Isle native Demerchant saved all five shots she faced in the first half before giving way to Raymond, who made nine – at least five of which were worthy of gold stars and happy faces.

Raymond’s last four saves – all in overtime – were of that caliber as she made a jumping save of a line-drive direct kick halfway through the first overtime, a stop of a shot to the right side off a breakaway rush with 1:10 left in the first overtime, caught a shoulder-high bullet to the right side with seven minutes left in the second overtime, and made a sliding save on a low line drive to the left corner just 45 seconds later.

“They just kept bringing long balls up and we had defenders back, so they were getting a lot of one-on-ones,” Raymond said.

Drew preserved the tie with a sprawling, one-handed deflection of a shot to the net’s lower left corner with 2:55 left in regulation play.

“This is probably one of the best games we’ve played, but at the same time it’s a little frustrating because we had some chances, but we didn’t finish the goals and put the game away,” Drew said.

Husson scored an apparent goal on a pass from Elissa Gordon to Jenn Hussey three minutes into the second half, but the goal was nullified by an offsides call on Gordon.