Blum sparks West boys; East, West girls in tie

HAMPDEN – As one of the top goalies in the state, the Greely boys soccer team needed Oliver Blum in net during its run to the 2007 Class A state championship.

But Blum showed Sunday he might have been just as useful for the Rangers of Cumberland Center on the field, too.

The lanky 6-foot-2 senior scored a goal and added two assists while playing in goal part of the game as the West boys all-stars rolled to a 9-3 win over the East in the 13th Annual Maine Soccer Coaches Senior Bowl at the Weatherbee Complex.

“I like to play in the field, but coaches always put me in goal,” Blum said. “Playing in the field’s a lot of fun but I’ve pretty much always been a goalie.”

The East girls got second-half goals from Bangor’s Amy Hackett and Caribou’s Ali Richards en route to a 2-2 tie against the West.

The all-star games featured the top seniors in the state from Eastern and Western Maine. Each game consisted of two 60-minute halves of running time.

Blum, who shared time with three other West goalies, made several tough saves while he was in goal, although he did allow an East score after giving up just six for Greely this year. He also made several punts or drop kicks of at least 70 yards.

When he wasn’t in goal, Blum played on the West’s front line, where he assisted on a goal by Tyler Metivier of Traip Academy in Freeport. Blum got one of his own with 14 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first half, scoring on a 25-yard blast.

“That was pretty lucky,” said Blum, who wants to play soccer in college and is looking at Providence, Fairfield and Northeastern. “I wanted to shoot, because I don’t get a lot of chances. Whenever the ball’s at my feet I like to take a chance and shoot.”

The West outshot the East 26-13 overall and scored four goals in the final 15:30 of the second half. Metivier finished with two goals and Georges Valley of Thomaston’s Chris Eustis had one off an assist from Freedom native Cody Zane, who plays for North Yarmouth Academy.

Van Buren’s Alex Martin scored on a penalty kick in the second half to make it 4-3 before the West’s barrage.

In fact, all three East goals were scored by players from the Aroostook League. Ashland’s Tyler Cote and Fort Fairfield’s Ryan Noyes each added a goal of their own. Ben Doucette, also of Van Buren, assisted on Noyes’ score.

“They’re all Class D players, too, and we’re pretty proud of that,” said Ashland boys coach Kevin Paradis, who helped coach the East team. “That says a little something for Class D soccer.”

Cote was excited to play with some of his regular-season rivals including Martin, Doucette and Jean-Pierre Dumond, also of Van Buren.

“I’ve always played against and them and never had a chance to get passing and shooting with them,” Cote said. “It was fun to have a chance to do that today.”

In the girls game, Amanda Gifford of Lee recorded the assist on both East goals.

Richards continued the County’s scoring with a go-ahead goal in the second half, although Yarmouth’s Tierney Minte scored with 34:37 left to tie it for good.

Hackett put the East on the board with a shot from the right side that tied the game at 1-1. Gifford’s square pass set up the play.

“She sees the field really well and she’s good at setting people up,” Hackett said of Gifford. “… It was so cold, and it just took us a while to click and find runs and figure out what worked for us.”

Waynflete’s Alex Woodhouse scored the only first-half goal.

Both teams had good chances to score in the second half the West had a slim 13-11 edge in shots on goal after halftime and 23-21 overall.

The East dominated the second half at times, however, with good passing on the front line.

“I thought it was cool, the forwards and midfielders just hit it right to each other and read each other really well,” said Lee forward Aarika Ritchie.