New play boosts Bangor 2nd-half rally nets Rams seventh win

BANGOR – It’s a play the Bangor boys soccer team inserted into its playbook just last week in an attempt to create more scoring chances on direct kicks.

But like the rest of Saturday’s game against Presque Isle, a little luck helped Bangor pull it off and rally to a 3-2 win over the Wildcats.

Despite uninspired first-half play, the 7-1 Rams twice tied the game, the second time on that huge set play that finally worked, and got a game-winning goal from Adam Towne to knock off Presque Isle for the second time this season.

“We played poorly for 40 minutes, so I would have felt very lucky with a tie,” Bangor coach Adam Leach said. “But I’m very pleased. To be able to have adversity and come back and get those goals, that was good.”

Presque Isle (7-2) had a 2-1 lead with 20 minutes left and had dominated most of the game when Bangor was awarded a direct kick after the Wildcats were whistled for a dangerous play outside their penalty area. The Rams organized their set play as Presque Isle organized its wall of defensive players.

Four Bangor players took turns running over the ball to try to confuse the PI defenders while JoJo Hwalek and Dylan George of Bangor waited to see what would develop so they could complete the play.

Things worked better than drawn up as two Wildcats were issued yellow cards for encroachment – defending players have to be at least 10 yards away before the ball is touched.

As the Wildcats tried to reorganize, Hwalek and George made their move. George passed the ball to Hwalek, who passed it right back to a wide-open George. He settled the ball, shot it in past goalie Brad Baker, and tied the game.

“There was a wide-open space there and JoJo and I were talking about it,” George said. “I ran over the ball and all the [defenders] charged me so I cut it back and in between them and I shot it into the corner.”

The Wildcats seemed unnerved as they tried to figure out who was marking who after the two players had to leave the game.

“We had no idea what we were doing and I think that gave Dylan enough time to play a card game for a while,” PI coach Scott Young said. “We had enough time to cover that up and we didn’t because we were very confused.”

George’s goal, his 16th of the season, sparked the Rams. About 12 minutes later Towne netted the winner.

“Dylan had a nice cross to me,” Towne said. “I was going to hit it as hard as I could but the goalie was heading at me so I just did a little tap-in into the far corner.”

The Wildcats had a few good chances in the closing moments, but goalie Jessefa Murphy (nine saves on 19 shots) made several spectacular saves.

Presque Isle had a lot of good chances early but couldn’t find the net until Sean Daigle put in a rebound about 12 minutes into the game. Towne tied it almost seven minutes later but Chris Carlin scored on a pass from Greg Whitaker with seven minutes left for a 2-1 halftime lead.

“We play a possession game but we weren’t controlling the ball,” Hwalek said. “We were trying to play like [Presque Isle], the kick-and-run.”

The Rams used stopper Elliott Megquier on James, who had 13 goals coming into the game.

Baker made five saves on 13 shots.

JV: Bangor 1-0