Hwalek’s late goal lifts Bangor past Brewer

BANGOR – The Brewer High School boys soccer team certainly didn’t play like a team that entered Tuesday night’s game against archrival Bangor with a 2-5 record.

And they didn’t allow the Rams to play like the undefeated team they are.

But junior striker JoJo Hwalek saved the day for the Rams, scoring during a scramble set up by an Adam Towne corner with just 1:03 remaining to give Bangor a 1-0 triumph.

“I feel very lucky to sneak away with that one,” said Bangor coach Adam Leach. “All I can say is hats off to Brewer. They played a fantastic game. They outworked us and took us off our game. They played like it was the playoffs.”

The 9-0 Rams also caught a break when a Witch goal by Shunsake Sasaki was waved off due to an offsides with 35 minutes remaining in regulation.

Towne said the Rams have been working on corners.

“We hadn’t had very good luck with them but we finally put one in the back of the net,” said Towne.

Towne’s corner went to Dan Malmer in the middle of the penalty area and his header cleanly beat sophomore goalie Chris Brady to the far post. A perfectly positioned Kyle Allcroft saved a goal by heading it away but the opportunistic Hwalek tracked it down.

“I turned and headed it back toward the goal. The goalie was at the far post and I hit it near post. I saw a little opening,” said Hwalek.

Brewer pressured the Rams all over the field and forced them into errant passes and poor first-touches throughout.

They also won the majority of 50-50 balls.

“It’s very disappointing to play so well and end up going home with a loss, especially against an undefeated team,” said Brewer coach Darren Hall.

“A win would have been huge for us and we played well enough to get it. We were terribly, terribly unlucky,” added Hall.

The Rams abandoned their short passing game at times in favor of some long through balls but the alert Brady came way off his line to intercept them.

He also made a great save off Bangor 16-goal scorer Dylan George in the first half as he smothered George’s 14-yard shot off a Towne through ball.

George had three first-half shots on goal but didn’t have any in the second half.

“Killian Kilroy and Chris Corey played great. I had those two guys on Dylan George and they did an outstanding job. They took him completely off his game,” said Hall.

Brewer also generated some opportunities throughout the game including a couple of dangerous scrambles that went for naught when shots were blocked by the Rams in the penalty area.

The Witches thought they had broken through when Andrew Richardson served a precise cross from the left flank to the far post where Sasaki headed it powerfully past Bangor goalie Austin Smith.

But another Witch player was ruled to be offsides.

Smith finished with three saves on 10 shots as the Rams posted their fourth straight shutout.

Brady came up with four saves on 18 shots.