BANGOR – Halfway through the second half of Monday’s game against Messalonskee of Oakland, the Bangor High boys enjoyed a huge shots advantage, but had nothing to show for it.

The Rams had outshot the visiting Eagles 15-3, but were trailing 1-0.

Nick George changed that with 19:37 to play as he took a pass from Brian Loiselle, broke quickly through a seam in Messalonskee’s defense at midfield, and streaked toward the net. George’s first shot off a hard kick was deflected back by Eagles goalie Andrew Wilson, but George followed up and blasted the rebound into the unguarded net to tie the game.

Despite a few solid scoring chances by both teams, neither could get the ball in the net over the ensuing 29 minutes and 37 seconds and the teams settled for a 1-1 double-overtime tie. The result was cause for both disappointment and satisfaction.

“Any time you’re playing at home, you don’t want to give anything up,” said Bangor head coach David Patterson. “But we were down 1-0 early and that’s not a position we’ve been in before, so it was a good challenge. I was pleased with how we responded.”

George’s goal was set up by some crisp passing near midfield as midfielder Cody Cormier corralled the ball and sent it over to Kyle Savage near the right sideline. Savage booted it ahead to Loiselle.

“They play a flat four formation so we knew we had to get across on them. Brian sent me a nice ball and I got free to take a shot,” George said.

The 7-0-1 Rams outshot the Eagles 26-7, but never mounted any kind of scoring threat in either overtime period. Meanwhile, the Eagles almost scored on a header with 2:06 left in the first overtime.

“This is probably the most shots we’ve given up all season,” said Tom Sheridan, head coach of the 6-1-1 Eagles.

The Eagles led 1-0 despite being outshot 10-3 at the half. The goal came from midfielder Matt Ouellette, who controlled a rebounded shot off a corner kick on the left side and then blasted the ball into the left corner 7:49 into the game.

“I think we definitely were lucky to be leading,” Sheridan said. “Our defense stepped up and played very well today and our midfield had a great game.

“We had a lot of young guys step up, especially Cameron Omsberg, who played amazingly. He does things that don’t show up in the stats out there.”

Despite the shot disparity, Patterson said his Rams couldn’t quite solve Messalonskee’s flat-back four alignment of four backs (two outside backs and two center backs).

“They played really well at the back. We had a hard time breaking them down,” Patterson said. “We couldn’t get in behind them and they had a lot of people in front of their back four as well. We had a lot of possession time, but that doesn’t count for much when you can’t put the ball in net.”

Eagles sophomore goalie Andrew Wilson made several athletic saves en route to 12.

Senior Alan Reese also had a solid game in net for Bangor with five saves on seven shots.

JV: Bangor 6-0

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