Bench play paces Eagles past Bucks

ELLSWORTH – Kelsey Crowley and Ashley Cloak had a short chat as the two Ellsworth girls soccer substitutes were waiting to enter Tuesday’s game against Bucksport.

“We went in at the same time and before we went in we were saying, all right, we’re gonna score,” Crowley said.

Turns out the two girls knew what they were talking about.

Crowley and Cloak combined for the eventual game-winning goal as the Eagles picked up their first win of the season, a 2-0 victory Tuesday evening over Hancock County rival Bucksport at Del Luce Stadium.

Ellsworth, which made it to the Eastern Maine Class B final last year before falling to Winslow, opened the 2007 season with a loss to George Stevens of Blue Hill. The Eagles were eager to even their record.

“We needed to get a morale boost,” said senior fullback and captain Sarah Homich. “We were a little down after that game.”

Emily Lyons added the second goal for Ellsworth, which meant all of the Eagles’ scoring came from their bench players.

“We had quite a bit of depth last year, and this year, if you put [the backups] in we’re going to score the same amount,” Homich said. “It doesn’t really matter who’s in the game. They’re all pretty capable of scoring.”

Crowley said she and Cloak work well together, which was certainly evident on their goal. All Crowley had to do was run on to a pass Cloak kicked into the middle.

“She got down in the corner and gave me a perfect pass right into the middle,” Crowley said. “I just had to tap it in. It was a good pass.”

Lyons also got a nice pass from Cloak for her goal. Lyons was standing near the left post and kicked the ball into the back right corner of the net.

Bucksport fullback Sarah Robinson had the tough task of marking Ellsworth forward Maggie Harding. Robinson managed to keep the all-star from getting too many scoring opportunities, which pleased first-year head coach Aaron Winslow.

“That was one of our focuses,” he said. “I think we took [Harding] out of it for the most part, but it was their bench that hurt us.”

Casey Wyman nearly scored for Ellsworth about 12 minutes into the game when she kicked in a ball that hit the underside of the crossbar, but the ball was ruled to have landed just outside the goal.

Ellsworth controlled much of the play, but the Golden Bucks (0-1) had a number of good chances. Bucksport’s Cassie Gourley sent in a crossing pass from the right wing 15 minutes into the game but neither of two Bucks players crashing the goal could get to the ball in time.

Keely Sullivan sent in a well-placed corner kick in the second half, but again the Golden Bucks couldn’t make a play on the ball.

“We’ve got to work on finishing,” Winslow said. “That was one of our issues in the preseason. Same thing happened in the first half. We had two or three nice crosses but nobody was getting a touch on it.”

Ellsworth goalkeeper Rachel Arkin stopped all six Bucksport shots. Bucksport goalie Stephanie Bridges stopped eight of 14 shots.