Ritchie scores 4, Lee blanks Pats Pandas display depth on offense

LEE – Amanda Gifford may have been the focus recently for the Lee Academy girls soccer team as she surpassed the 100-goal mark for her career in a game last week.

Gifford now stands at 103 after she scored a goal in the Pandas’ 7-0 win over Bangor Christian Monday, but the focus against the Patriots turned to Aarika Ritchie.

Ritchie, who like Gifford is a senior, racked up four goals in Monday’s game to help the defending Class D state champions move to 10-0 in their first season back in Class C.

She also put herself nine goals away from joining Gifford in the elite 100-goal group.

“I think it’s really cool because we’ve been teammates all the way up through since kindergarten,” said Ritchie, who had 87 career goals before Monday’s game at Linscott Field.

Gifford had caused a lot of damage with a three-goal game against Bangor Christian (7-4) in a 4-3 Lee win earlier this season. BC head coach Clark Cole had defender Amanda Hall mark Gifford on Monday, and Hall kept Gifford from getting too many opportunities.

Instead, Ritchie took over early. She scored her first goal 7 minutes, 37 seconds into the game off a fine pass ahead from Katelyn Mallett.

“I met her eye and I saw she was dribbling towards the left,” Ritchie said. “I cut into the gap and she played it to me perfectly.”

Ritchie put in two more first-half goals, including one on a throw-in that actually went in off a Bangor Christian player. She also scored the last goal of the game.

“Aarika came out of the gates and put it to us,” Cole said. “You’ve got to take [out] the one that hurt you and, in Bangor, Amanda killed us with three goals. We keyed on her today and I thought we did a pretty decent job. But they have Aarika and Brooke [Harris] on defense. They have so many weapons.”

Senior Dana Houghton scored on a 35-yard chip shot less than three minutes before halftime and freshman Kellsey Grass scored in the second half. Mallett assisted on Grass’ goal.

Gifford’s goal came in the second half when she drilled a low header off a Ritchie corner kick. The two hook up frequently for set plays.

“We’ve always seemed to have a connection, like her scoring on my corner kick,” Ritchie said. “I can’t count how many times we’ve done that.”

Bangor Christian’s Moriah Bach made 10 saves on 26 shots. Lee’s Karin Bird stopped four of six shots.

Cole said the Patriots, who are in Class D but play a predominantly Class C schedule, will move on from the loss.

“Hopefully they won’t like this feeling very much,” he said. “[The tough schedule] will hopefully help us for the playoffs.”

Before the game, Lee athletic director Randy Harris presented Gifford with flowers and a game ball. Afterward, the team enjoyed a sheet cake and Gifford thanked her teammates.

She scored her 100th goal on Sept. 26 and had two more in that game, an 11-0 win over Deer Isle-Stonington. Gifford’s next goal? To surpass former Lee star Deidra Ham, who scored 119 goals in her career and is No. 2 on the Pandas’ all-time list.

Now the Pandas will focus on the rest of the regular season, which they’re hoping will finish without a loss. In 2006 Lee lost twice to Bangor Christian in the regular season but beat the Patriots 4-0 in an Eastern Maine Class D semifinal.

“We had [two] last year and it did pump us up more,” Gifford said. “But I think senior year we want to go out undefeated.”

The Bangor Christian soccer team has seen a lot of Lee’s goal scorers over the years. The Pandas were playing the Patriots in September 2004 when Lee’s Shelby Pickering scored her 127th career goal, breaking the state scoring record. She finished her career with 177 goals.