Hull sparks Bapst Crusaders blank Ellsworth boys

ELLSWORTH – Of all the fouls in a physical, emotional matchup between the two teams that played in the 2006 Eastern Maine Class B final, it was a hand ball that decided Tuesday night’s high school soccer game between Ellsworth and John Bapst.

The Crusaders of Bangor took advantage in the exciting back-and-forth affair at Del Luce Stadium.

Jordan Myers and Casey Hull combined on the game-winning goal in the second half as a Myers free kick clanged off the crossbar and Hull chested in the rebound to lift Bapst to a 1-0 victory over the Eagles.

Thursday’s regular-season game didn’t have the importance of last year’s EM final, which Bapst won 2-1, but coach Andy Frace’s Crusaders are hoping to build on the win after they started the season 3-3.

“This is a great team to get it going against,” Hull said. “This is what we really needed to give us some confidence.”

Ellsworth coach Brian Higgins was pleased with his team’s effort. The Eagles (2-2-2) outshot the Crusaders 19-10.

“It was just a bang-bang game and they got the break,” Higgins said. “… About five minutes after they scored we had the same type of play and the ball just didn’t bounce.”

The teams combined for 41 fouls, including one yellow card. Ellsworth committed the hand-ball foul that allowed Myers to set up for the free kick just outside the 18-yard line near the left corner of the box.

He slammed the ball over a wall of Eagle players and it hit the right side of the crossbar with a loud clang.

“To be honest, that was a shot,” Myers said. “It was close. Unfortunately it didn’t go in.”

The ball dropped to Hull inside the 6-yard line. He pushed it to the left of Ellsworth goalie Greg Berry only 5 minutes, 26 seconds after halftime.

“The coaches were saying, get a body on it, and that’s how I did it,” Hull said. “I just put my chest into it and it went in.”

Both Bapst goalie Ethan Cushman (10 saves) and Berry (six saves) had stellar games.

The Eagles forced Cushman to make several tough stops as Ellsworth tried to utilize the long throw-ins of Patrick Kelley, who had no problem throwing it into the area in hopes the Eagles would get a head on the ball.

“We know that Ellsworth can throw the ball wicked hard,” said the 6-foot-7 Cushman. “The defense worked on hitting the ball, clearing it out.”

Cushman had a big stop with 5:25 left when he blocked a hard shot from the left wing by Matt Duhaime. The Eagles got a corner kick out of it, but another shot was off-target.

Cushman was able to punch out other Ellsworth shots, and the Eagles didn’t help themselves with some shots that were too high or wide of the posts.

“We didn’t keep it low enough to keep it out of [Cushman’s] hands, I don’t think,” Higgins said. “Pat said the ball was slippery and he couldn’t throw it low like he wanted to.”

The Eagles pressured the Crusaders in the final minutes, moving Berry up to the midfield, but Ellsworth was called offsides with 25 seconds left in the game. Myers booted the ball away with 10 seconds remaining.

Ellsworth wanted to mark playmaker Myers tightly and used fullback Danny Duhaime for that purpose.

“He’s a good defender but I tried to move a lot, get him off my back, get open and be there for the team,” Myers said.

Higgins was also pleased with Duhaime’s defense on Myers.

“That was the plan,” Higgins said. “… Both teams played hard. I told the kids, I can’t fault you for anything except maybe two or three bad decisions in taking long shots and not going down the outside of the field. But they played hard. Both teams did.”

JV: Ellsworth 1-0