Second-half spark helps Rams earn win

BANGOR – By the time halftime of Saturday’s season-opener came, the Bangor High girls soccer team had a lead it would not relinquish against Lawrence.

But the Rams didn’t really put the game away until the second half, when Erin MacDermott scored her second goal to lead Bangor to a 3-1 win over the Bulldogs of Fairfield at the high school field.

The Rams dominated after halftime even though they only had one goal to show for it as they began defense of their 2005 Eastern Maine Class A championship.

“There was a definite change, especially at the beginning,” Lawrence coach Brandon Baldwin said. “We needed something to happen and it wasn’t happening. We got some shot opportunities but in the second half Bangor definitely took control.”

For midfielder MacDermott and forward Amy Hackett, who scored Bangor’s eventual game-winner, the halftime change was more about increased intensity.

“I think we were a little nervous in the first half,” Hackett said. “It was the first time out for some of the girls and we have a pretty young team, so we had to get the jitters out in the first. We settled down in the second and found each other.”

Rams coach Larry Smith said dropping a forward back to the midfield made a big difference.

“They were excited about that and it seemed effective,” he said. “… I think it matched up better with [Lawrence’s] ballhandlers in the middle.”

Even though the Rams already had a 2-1 lead they came out firing and eventually outshot the Bulldogs 10-7 in the second half.

Bangor’s Casey Hartley nearly scored on a breakaway in the first five minutes but Lawrence goalie Amanda Andrews came out to make a save. Hackett got another breakaway going three minutes later and although she didn’t score, her push into the Lawrence defensive half gave MacDermott another opportunity for her second blast of the game.

The ball went in just over Andrews’ fingertips.

“We tried a lot of new things, new players, new formations,” MacDermott said. “We started communicating and worked together more.”

MacDermott gave Bangor an early lead when her shot from beyond the 18-yard line rolled into the left corner of the goal past Andrews about nine minutes into the game.

Lawrence knotted it up seven minutes later but Hackett’s run through the Bulldog defense and ensuing short kick into the net broke the tie.

Bangor’s Tawyna Godinez made five saves on Lawrence’s 11 shots, including second-half headers by Anna Toner, Amy Pottle and Natasha Morris.

Godinez did let in a goal after she came out to stop Lawrence’s Brogan Liberty, who had the ball in the box to Godinez’s left. Godinez fell while going after the ball and Liberty tapped it over to Morris for the goal.

The Bulldogs played most of the game without senior forward Meagan Forsythe, who injured her ankle in the first five minutes and didn’t return.