GUILFORD – The 260-mile trip from the state’s rooftop to southern Piscataquis County on Tuesday provided plenty of down time for the Madawaska boys soccer team.

Some extra sleep was the first order of the day after the bus left town at 7 a.m., followed by breakfast two hours down the road in Houlton, then card games, music, and a viewing of “Remember the Titans” on coach Ben Sirois’ laptop computer.

One thing that didn’t come along for the ride was the lethargy common after such a long haul, because the No. 10 Owls took the lead 61 seconds into their Eastern Maine Class C semifinal and went on to a 4-0 victory over the No. 3 Piscataquis Community High Pirates.

“This season we’ve been a better road team,” said Sirois. “We’ve kind of taken that on our backs and used that to motivate us. We consider these blue jerseys more lucky than our white jerseys.”

Tyler Levesque, Michael Arnold, Myles Morneault and Andrew Levesque each scored a goal for 9-6-2 Madawaska, with Paul Roy contributing two assists.

“We definitely handled the ball well,” said Arnold. “At the beginning of the season we did more kick and run, but we stopped that and now we’re doing a lot more passing to each other.”

The Madawaska defense had to fend off some early PCHS challenges sparked by twins Jarrod and Jeffrey Robinson, but sturdy sweeper Billy Roy and goalie Paul Michaud (seven saves) played crucial roles as the Owls that earned their third straight postseason shutout.

“We were just coming with our A game,” said Roy. “We didn’t care how good or bad they were, we were going to come here with intensity and do our best to try and get the victory.”

The win ensures the 9-6-2 Owls at least one more road trip, Saturday’s regional final at No. 4 Dexter. The Tigers defeated No. 1 George Stevens of Blue Hill 1-0 in penalty kicks Tuesday.

But after more than 1,200 miles of bus rides to earn playoff wins at Houlton, Central of Corinth and now PCHS, another trip is just what the Owls crave – though they weren’t sure they were even going to make the postseason party as the regular season ended.

“The seniors were scared because they thought the [regular-season finale against] Van Buren was their last game,” said Sirois, “but it just so happened the right teams lost and we snuck in 10th.”

Madawaska scored five minutes into its quarterfinal at Central en route to a 6-0 victory, and struck with similar abruptness against a youthful PCHS team that had rebounded from an 0-4 start to earn its semifinal berth and finish 8-7-1.

Paul Roy gained control of the ball near midfield and then dribbled toward the goal with a PCHS defender closely trailing him. Roy wasn’t able to get off a shot, but grounded a centering pass to a wide-open Tyler Levesque, who scored into an open net to give the Owls a 1-0 lead.

“I think it takes the other team out of the game real quick by putting one on them, and then we just work to get another one real quick,” Morneault said.

The Owls extended their lead with two goals late in the first half. Arnold curled a corner kick in off a PCHS defender with 11:11 left, then Morneault converted a penalty kick after PCHS was red-carded for a deliberate hand ball in the penalty area with 10:05 to play.

Andrew Levesque scored Madawaska’s final goal, redirecting the rebound of a Paul Roy shot past PCHS goalie Ryan Martell (nine saves) with 22:07 left in the match.