Orono High sports are enjoying plenty of success this year. The football team is 6-2 and sitting in third place in its conference. The Red Riots girls soccer team went 13-0-1 in the regular season and are in second place for the Eastern Maine Class C playoffs.

But not many people thought the boys soccer team would do what it has done this year.

After winning one game in the 2004 season, the Riots have reversed their 1-11-2 record this fall. They’re 11-1-2 and found out Monday morning that they’ve gained the No. 1 seed for the EM Class C postseason, which starts with preliminary-round games Wednesday.

Orono will next play in Saturday’s quarterfinals, where the Riots will face the winner of the prelim between No. 9 Washington Academy of East Machias and No. 8 Piscataquis of Guilford.

The Red Riots haven’t been the top seed since the early 1980s, the year before Larry Berthiaume started a 12-year stint as head coach before taking 10 years off from coaching. He’s been back for five seasons.

This is Orono’s first year playing Class C soccer, and to be sure the Riots have heard plenty of talk – that the only reason they’re playing well is because they’re dropped classifications.

“Mostly we get that from our friends,” said midfielder Nimesh Patel, one of four senior captains along with Jeff Normand, Tom Smyth and David Silk. “But we kind of proved them wrong by beating a Class B team this year.”

Orono’s enrollment, which was 386 last year, puts it squarely in Class C anyway. Class C enrollment is 230-399 students.

Berthiaume refutes the notion that the Riots’ success is a result of their drop in class. Rather, the team seems to be winning more one-goal games this year, which was not the case last year.

“You can ask [Ellsworth coach] Brian Higgins, [MDI coach] John Rosenfeld, [John Bapst coach] Evan Frace, any of those ‘B’ coaches,” Berthiaume said before Monday’s practice. “We lost a lot of close games last year. This year we’re winning them. So that and the maturity of our players is the big difference. They’re a little stronger, a little quicker, a little bit more mature.”

This season Orono is 4-1 in its one-goal games. The Riots’ only loss this year was a 1-0 defeat at the hands of No. 2 Dexter. Orono tied Dexter 2-2 and No. 5 George Stevens of Blue Hill 2-2.

“This year after we get down by a goal or two we’re not out of the game,” Patel said. “We don’t get down ourselves as much as we did last year.”

There are other factors in the Riots’ success, of course, including three-year starting goalie Mat Lint, an improved defense, more players participating in camps and off-season clubs like Black Bear United, and a well-rounded offense, with 12 players scoring at least one goal apiece and 11 with at least one assist.

The Riots have scored 45 goals in their 14 games. Junior forward Chris McConnon leads Orono with 16 goals, while forward Normand has 10 goals and seven assists. Smyth has six assists.

Other key players include transfer Trey Schlutt, who moved to Maine from Wyoming and has three assists and four goals. Lint has given up just one goal per game and has four shutouts. And several players, like James Berry, a junior varsity swing player last year who is now one of the varsity team’s better defenders, have shown a lot of improvement.

“This year a lot of people have stepped up,” fullback Silk said.

Among the key wins this year are a 7-2 victory over Piscataquis – the Riots found themselves down 2-0 before rallying for a 7-2 win in the third game of the season – and a combined 10-2 score in two wins over Class B Hermon.

“I think we were sick of losing,” Smyth said. “We have a strong senior presence and we all wanted this to be a good season before we left high school.”

Porter replaces Porter

Jessica Porter has been hired to replace her husband, Jon Porter, as the girls varsity basketball coach at Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook.

It’s a natural personnel move. Jon Porter resigned his position when he became the school’s principal this fall, and Jessica Porter had been his junior varsity coach for six years.

Jessica Porter also played for the Warriors and is a 1994 graduate of the school.

“I played basketball for this program and after coaching the JV team, this just felt like the next step,” she said.

Her husband encouraged her to apply.

“He was very supportive,” Jessica Porter said. “I just wanted to apply and see what happened.”

It will be Jessica Porter’s first varsity basketball position. She had previously coached the girls soccer team for one year.

The Warriors made it to the Eastern Maine Class D semifinals last year and return several key players, including 5-foot-9 forward Audrey Charette, her sister Amanda Charette, who is a guard, and Kaylea Collier, who will likely be the starting point guard. In addition, 5-10 forward Shana Martin, who didn’t play last year, will be back.

Lions, Indians win KVAC titles

It won’t count in the standings, but the Belfast field hockey team picked up another big win.

And coach Allen Holmes’ Lions didn’t even have to play a game.

Saturday’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B championship game was cancelled because of rain, but Belfast was named the conference champ anyway because the 14-0 Lions had 165.17 Heal points compared to Leavitt of Turner’s 111.60 points. The Hornets were 11-3 in the regular season.

The KVAC title is the second in a row for Belfast, the defending Class B state champion.

Defending Class A state champion Skowhegan was named the KVAC Class A winner because its Saturday game was cancelled, too. The 13-1 Indians, with 183.36 points, beat 12-1-1 Gardiner’s 175.71 points.

On Wednesday, Skowhegan will face the winner of Monday’s prelim between No. 8 Brunswick and No. 9 Lawrence of Fairfield while Belfast will meet the winner of the prelim between No. 8 Rockland and No. 9 Nokomis of Newport

Nemer gets ‘Face’ time

Ashland girls soccer goalie Ashley Nemer has been recognized by Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” section for her 30th career shutout with a 1-0 victory over Katahdin of Stacyville on Tuesday, Oct. 4.

Nemer, a senior starter on the soccer, basketball and softball teams, boasts a 0.87 goals-against career average.

She helped lead the Hornets to the Eastern Maine Class D basketball final last season and was named to the all-tourney team. Ashland’s softball team advanced to the semifinals. According to the magazine, Nemer has never missed a game in any sport.

“Faces in the Crowd” recognizes top interscholastic, intercollegiate and recreational athletes who aren’t otherwise recognized in the magazine.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.