BANGOR – Ten days ago, the Bangor Rams headed to Presque Isle for a key schoolboy soccer showdown. They gave up five goals. Scored none. Dropped to 3-4. And they vowed to do something about it.
“The kids responded to it with anger, but it was together,” coach Adam Leach said on Monday night, after his resurgent team had faced cross-river rival Brewer.
“Instead of it splintering the team apart, it brought us together, and we took off from there,” Leach said. “We’ve been playing good soccer ever since.”
The latest evidence: Bangor got two goals from senior Jeff Oertel, two assists from classmate Andrew Weber, and dispatched the Witches 3-0 on Monday night.
The win was the Rams’ fourth straight after the Presque Isle loss, and avenged an earlier 3-2 defeat at the hands of Brewer.
Next up for 7-4 Bangor: Presque Isle, today. Brewer drops to 4-7-1.
The Rams scored with 14:59 to go in the first half, as Kyle Cutshall settled a Weber cross and blasted it past Brewer goalkeeper Michael King (eight saves on 15 shots).
Brewer’s Will Prescott threatened to score the equalizer on four occasions early in the second half, but the Rams ended up getting the insurance they needed with 9:42 to go.
Weber was again the catalyst, as he crossed the ball from 40 yards out on the right to the left corner of the penalty area.
“I saw Jeff wide, and knew if I could put it high enough I could get it over all the defenders,” Weber said. “Jeff’s a really good ballhandler, so I knew he could take care of it himself.”
Oertel did, beating King to the low right corner.
Oertel capped the scoring on a penalty kick with 8:06 to play after drawing contact from a Brewer defender after running onto a Matt Oliver pass.
“I knew the guy was on the inside of me, so I just tried to cut in on him and get the penalty,” Oertel said with a chuckle. “It’s one of the tricks of the game. If you play long enough, you figure them out.”
Brewer coach Mark Hundhammer said he was pleased with the way his team played.
“They had three great goals, so I can’t be ashamed of how we played,” Hundhammer said. “We had our chances to score goals, but they took it to us when they had to.”
Bangor goalie Payson Nichols made one save on 11 shots while backup Josh Heath didn’t have to make a save while facing one shot.
Brewer’s Jon Bell said the game was vastly different from the early-season win, during which his team led 3-0 at the half.
“The first game it seemed like they [thought] they were gonna [win] easily, but we came out strong and put it to ’em,” Bell said. “This game we both came out strong and they just got some more chances. And we didn’t put ours away.”
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