Rossignol lifts Eagles over Brewer in OT

BREWER – David Rossignol had been around the ball for much of the game, maddeningly close to several breakaways that always seemed to be cut short by a bad bounce or a slightly off-the-mark pass.

The all-time leading career scorer for the Messalonskee boys soccer team was beginning to wonder just what it would take to end the scoreless drought in Friday’s Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal game against Brewer at Pendleton Street Field.

He found out just 2 minutes, 37 seconds into overtime.

The senior forward took a Matt Delguidice pass out of a scramble at midfield and scored on a breakaway to give No. 5 Messalonskee of Oakland a 1-0 victory over No. 4 Brewer on a soggy afternoon.

“It basically came right to me,” Rossignol said. “I took off, the goalie came out, and I hit it with the other side of the foot and got it past him.”

It was the only thing to get past Chris Brady all day as Brewer’s senior goalie put on a highlight show to frustrate the Eagles, now 9-3-3 and moving on to face No. 1 Brunswick.

“I thought we had at least six or seven quality chances and two near-misses, so I thought we’d have at least one goal after that first half, but I take my hat off to their defense and goalie,” said Messalonskee coach Tom Sheridan. “They really played well. We put a lot on them, but they stopped a lot of shots.”

Brady made 13 saves on 16 shots for the 8-5-2 Witches.

Messalonskee’s Sergio Servello was no slouch in net either as he kept the Witches’ offense equally frustrated all afternoon. The senior ‘keeper stopped 10 of Brewer’s 12 shots, but it was one of the two he didn’t touch that scared him most in the second half.

“That one where they hit the crossbar, I thought he was going to chip it and cross it over, but the wind kind of took it and it hit the bar,” Servello said.

It was a game of many near misses and diving, lunging highlight-reel saves. It was also a game of adjustments, and it was one in particular that aided the Eagles.

“We just tried to drop more people back and hopefully get a breakaway, which we did to score that goal,” said Servello.

Moving Delguidice up front from center midfielder also helped to put more pressure on Brewer’s defensive line.

“Delguidice is the key for them. He makes things happen,” said Brewer coach Mark Savage. “He works so hard and is such a competitor, he creates things for them. He’s around the ball a lot.”

Brewer also made some adjustments for the better.

“We were trying to get more one-touches on the ball and not play with the ball so much, but serve it quicker,” Savage said. “They were up on us tight defensively and if we tried to handle the ball, they closed us down and took the ball.

“We wanted to get the ball served to the corners quicker so we could get the cross. In this wet weather, anything we put toward the net is going to be difficult to handle.”

Brewer used free kicks and the strong arms of Prentiss Swett on throw-ins to generate more offensive pressure in the second half.

The win avenged two losses to Brewer (2-1 and 8-5).

“Our guys were pretty fired up,” Sheridan said. “We had three losses total and two to them, but we knew we could play with this team.”