Hwalek, Rams cruise past Lawrence 9-0

BANGOR – After a week’s worth of sort-of slumping games, the Bangor boys soccer team is hoping the past two nights will be a bit of a turnaround.

The Rams posted their second lopsided shutout in as many games. One night after a 7-0 win over Skowhegan, Bangor posted a 9-0 victory over Lawrence of Fairfield Thursday night.

That’s 16 goals in two games for the 7-1 Rams.

“I think we’re getting back into the mode of playing well again,” said senior midfielder JoJo Hwalek, who had three goals and an assist Thursday to go with a goal Wednesday. “This gives us some confidence. We’re really working hard.”

The offensive outburst comes after a week in which the Rams lost to Hampden 1-0, beat Old Town 1-0 and topped Nokomis of Newport 2-0.

That’s two wins and a loss, but Bangor was looking for more offense this week, especially with games against rival Brewer and Waterville set for next week.

“In the preseason we were incredibly enthusiastic and I think we lost that for a couple of games,” said senior forward Tony Martinez, who scored his ninth goal of the season and added an assist. “Since the Hampden game we were down for a little bit, but we came back up.”

Bangor beat Lawrence 12-0 in their first meeting. Peter Spears, who coaches the 1-5-1 Bulldogs, said he was expecting the Rams to use short passes to hang on to the ball.

“I wanted to anticipate a little bit more that they were going to use that strategy,” Spears said. “We knew what to expect. Sometimes we were able to combat it and sometimes we weren’t. Bangor’s just very solid fundamentally.”

The Rams used their possession game to dominate the midfield, allowing the Bulldogs few forays on offense. Lawrence had just one shot on goal.

“We had to stay focused and just make sure to keep the ball moving, get it to the outside and have some good crosses,” junior fullback Christian Larochelle said.

In addition to the offense provided by Hwalek and Martinez, Johnny Warren had a goal and assisted on two others and Pat Bolduc, Mack Susi, Nick George and Troy Jellison chipped in with one goal apiece.

Hwalek chipped the ball over to Martinez for Bangor’s first goal 1:47 into the game. Five minutes later Hwalek kicked in the rebound off a save by Lawrence goalie Max Haney.

Bangor had a 5-0 lead at halftime.

Haney did well to allow nine goals as the Rams outshot the Bulldogs 28-1 and had eight corner kicks to one for Lawrence. Haney finished with 13 saves.

“He shows a lot of guts,” Spears said. “He works very, very hard.”

Bangor ‘keeper Erik Milles made a save.

JV: Bangor 5-0