Eagles rally by Warriors on goals by Jordan, Rich Eagles earn first EM Class B final berth since ’99

ELLSWORTH – For almost 66 minutes of Tuesday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class B semifinal, the No. 1 Ellsworth boys soccer team outshot and thoroughly dominated No. 4 Fort Kent, but the Eagles couldn’t get anything past the Warriors and goalie Derick Plourde.

Ellsworth finally broke through, and just in time. The Eagles scored twice in a four-minute span to rally and edge Fort Kent 2-1 in an intense game at Del Luce Stadium.

Jensen Rich’s game-winning goal, which came with 10:24 left, boosted the Eagles into their first Eastern Maine final since 1999. Ellsworth, now 13-1-2, will host No. 3 Winslow (14-1-1) for the regional crown.

“It was scary but we figured we’d put one in,” said Rich, who has a team-high 19 goals this year. “We were pretty confident. We weren’t worried.”

According to Ellsworth coach Brian Higgins, the Eagles are now 9-2 against the Warriors. But Fort Kent held a 1-0 lead for much of the game after Ellsworth goalie Cory Smith grabbed a well-struck Warrior direct kick that rebounded out of his hands to Kelly Thibodeau, who converted with about 23 minutes left in the first half.

The Eagles came out firing after halftime, outshooting Fort Kent 5-1 before Noah Jordan put in a pass from Demetrious Katsiaficas, with a deflection off a Fort Kent player, with 14:15 left.

Almost four minutes later, Katsiaficas sent a through-ball to Rich, who lunged and tapped it past Plourde.

“We knew we could win, but out shots weren’t going in,” Katsiaficas said. “We kept our heads up. We knew we could come back.”

Overall, the Eagles had a 22-6 edge in shots. Plourde stopped 10 shots while Smith made four saves.

“If we didn’t come out today like we did, it would have been over way before it started,” Plourde said of Fort Kent’s early goal. “It was nice to give them a little surprise.”

The Warriors were the first team to score first against the Eagles.

“I told them at halftime, all the other games we had scored first,” Higgins said. “I said, well, we’ll see what you’re made of. … We were playing well but I think the adrenaline kicked up after [Jordan] scored.”

All three goals were scored on the field’s west-facing goal as the sun was setting. Higgins said he didn’t think it was a factor, as most of the shots were on the ground, but Plourde said the sun made it harder for him to judge when to come out after a ball.

“You can’t blame it on the sun but it makes a difference on balls coming in hard,” he said. “It’s not an excuse but it makes a bit of a difference.”

Both Fort Kent and Ellsworth play many of their home regular-season games at night under lights.