Final flurry lifts Bapst past Bucks Lammert leads late rally

BANGOR – The goals came in bunches, and for the John Bapst girls soccer team, that was a good thing.

The Crusaders used a second-half rally and scored four goals in the final 10 minutes of play to earn a 5-2 victory over Bucksport Wednesday at the Union Street Athletic Complex.

Catherine Lammert recorded a hat trick (three goals) and Kristina Hambrock came off the bench to score the game-winning goal with 5 minutes, 48 seconds left in the game as the Crusaders move to 11-2.

Bapst, which is sitting in third place in the Eastern Maine Class B standings, beat Bucksport 3-2 earlier this season.

The Golden Bucks, currently ranked seventh, go to 5-5-3.

Bucksport led for more than 33 minutes until Lammert tied it with 10:16 left in the second half.

“It was a good thing we got those goals so late, because they could have come back,” Hambrock said.

Hambrock scored the decisive goal after she ran onto a pass from Molly Jones. Bucksport goalie Katie Hurd came out of the goal to stop Hambrock, but she booted it into the net.

The winner came about 41/2 minutes after Lammert tied the game at 2-2 on a blast from the left wing.

It took a while for the Crusaders to get the ball past Hurd – she stopped five of six shots before Lammert’s tying goal.

“Following the ball was a huge key in the second half and we got it done in the second half,” Hambrock said. “She’s a great goalie. We just had to get to the ball and be there at the right time.”

Hurd finished with 11 saves on 21 shots.

Lammert scored her third goal when she nailed a penalty kick with 2:20 left.

The first bunch of goals came in the first 31/2 minutes of the game. Lammert scored about two minutes after the game started, and Bucksport’s Cassandra Gourley tied it up a little more than a minute later.

The Bucks and the Crusaders played evenly the rest of the half, until Gourley chipped a shot just over the reach of John Bapst goalie Caroline Cassling for a 2-1 lead with 3:22 left in the first half.

“Our goal was not to lose today, and we were up 2-1 with 10 minutes to go,” Bucksport coach Jack Gordon said. “Katie did a great job and so did the whole team.”

Although they allowed five goals, the Bucks played fine defense, especially on Bapst’s Whitney Sinclair, who entered the game with a team-high 20 goals. Bucksport stopper Meg Lalonde marked her tightly for much of the game.

“She’s pretty much our go-to marker,” Gordon said. “That’s what she does. She’s a little pit bull.”

Still, Sinclair had the initial pass on Hambrock’s winner, was the victim of the pushing foul that gave Lammert the penalty kick, and finally scored with 1:02 left.

“She just hustled to the ball like she always does,” Lammert said. “She’s always there.”

Cassling stopped six of 11 shots.