Tough defense, early goals help Owls tip Tigers

DEXTER – The Madawaska Owls arrived late but took control early in ousting top-ranked and unbeaten Dexter 2-1 in an Eastern Maine Class C boys soccer semifinal Tuesday.

Madawaska, whose five-hour trip down from the St. John Valley was delayed an additional half-hour by the ongoing construction on Interstate 95 in Bangor, reached the Jeff Parola Memorial Soccer Field just at the scheduled 2 p.m. start time.

But after a 15-minute warmup period, the fourth-ranked Owls struck for a 1-0 lead on a goal by Nathan Beaulieu just 93 seconds into the match and doubled that margin when Michael Cannan scored 12 minutes later.

The rest was left to a defense led by stopper Jordan Albert and sweeper Ethan Welch and anchored by goalie Nate Beaulieu, who maintained a shutout until the game’s final minutes.

“On the bus we had time to prepare,” said Albert. “We knew we were going to be late, and we knew they were going to be waiting for us. We just knew the key to a victory was to get a goal early, and that’s what we did.”

The 2-1 win advances 13-3 Madawaska to Friday’s regional final at No. 2 George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill, which edged No. 3 Washington Academy of East Machias 2-1.

Dexter, foiled in its bid to return to the EM final for the fifth consecutive year, finished with a 13-1-2 record.

“Their early goal gave them a lot of momentum and got us a little on our heels,” said Dexter coach Paul Shaw. “We were taking shots that were a little uncharacteristic for us, we weren’t attacking the goal like we normally do. They came out and played hard, but we played hard, too.”

These schools had split playoff meetings in 2004 and 2005, with Madawaska defeating Dexter in the 2004 EM final and the Tigers gaining revenge in the ’05 semifinals.

But Madawaska capitalized on a long goalie kick by Nate Beaulieu to take the lead in this rematch, as Chad Bechard chased down the kick and took it in on Dexter goalie Chris Eastman. Eastman blocked Bechard’s shot, but Nathan Beaulieu converted the rebound with 38:27 left in the first half.

“Our keeper has an amazing drop-punt, and it ended up bouncing over a defender and I just ran through it and saw an opening,” said Bechard. “I took a shot off the ‘keeper, but we had a perfect followup by Nathan Beaulieu. Beautiful goal.”

Cannan capitalized on the setup work by teammate Shawn Parker to extend the Owls’ lead. Parker stole the ball from a Dexter defender on the right wing, then made a perfect crossing pass to Cannan, who scored inside the far post to give Madawaska a two-goal cushion with 26:36 left in the half.

Madawaska’s defense shook off several subsequent challenges by the Tigers, particularly Rick Stewart and Devon Grant.

Nate Beaulieu made some big saves, but Welch also contributed a crucial stop with 25 minutes left in the match after Stewart gained control of a long kick from teammate Cody Clark on a restart near midfield.

Stewart got the ball past Beaulieu, but Welch was in front of the goal line to kick the ball away.

“Around 20 minutes left in the game there was a real momentum shift there,” said Madawaska coach Ben Sirois. “I don’t know if it was my boys just hoping for that time to end, or I don’t know if we were tired, but I know that Dexter really started to get hungry at that point and started to really become offensively threatening.”

Beaulieu turned away several more threats until Dexter finally got on the board when Stewart headed in a corner kick by David Wilks with 3:09 to play for his 36th goal of the season. It was the Tigers’ final shot on goal.

Beaulieu finished with 10 saves for Madawaska while Eastman stopped seven shots for Dexter.