BANGOR – Brad Holabird isn’t starting his senior year at Caribou High the way he would have hoped. Not after the Vikings soccer team made the playoffs each of the last two years. And not after they are off to a 1-3 start this year.

Holabird, the only Caribou player who saw any real playing time last year, was searching for signs of life in his young, inexperienced team after being blanked 5-0 by the Bangor Rams Saturday.

“We’re always improving. We’re more than ready to play them physically. I have no doubt about that,” Holabird said. “We just need experience. We have seven freshmen – and they’re good freshmen. A lot of us haven’t played together before.”

In the other camp, Bangor hasn’t been to the playoffs in two years and returns few starters, but most of the Rams have been playing together for years on Bangor’s summer and travel soccer teams. That’s the difference.

Bangor junior Corey Gildart, who played on the junior varsity last year, scored the goal that crushed Caribou’s lagging spirits. Yet he was merely pleased with how his Rams looked as they improved to 2-0 in front of about 160 fans.

“We’ve been talking all season about lifting the intensity. We still have got to improve for the next game,” Gildart said. “We just kept pushing. We want to practice hard and play hard, to be consistent.”

After Bangor sophomore Eben Sypitkowski scored 4 minutes, 41 seconds into the game on a penalty kick, Gildart lifted a David Lisnik assist high over Caribou goalie Mike Michaud’s head and into the left corner of the goal less than a minute later.

The goal at 34:57 was too much too soon and left Caribou struggling the rest of the half just to keep the ball out of its own zone – to no avail. At 21:14, Jay Jeffrey scored on a penalty kick to make it 3-0.

Bangor first-year coach Greg Sponberg said the Rams have their best soccer ahead of them. Still, they were consistent and driven.

In the second half, Caribou came back refreshed for the first 10 minutes, finding alleys, passing better and winning some of the 50-50 battles. But at 29:29 in the half, Bangor senior captain Elliot Blackstone roofed a powerful shot from outside the box to make it 4-0.

At 21:58, Ferhat Cakaloz found Jim Shea through a group of Caribou defenders and Shea knocked in the ball from in front of the goal made it 5-0.

“I liked the intensity. Good teams play hard and work together. They’ve really bought into playing together,” Sponberg said. “I would like to see more possession. A lot of time they used their strength and speed and athleticism to overcome Caribou.”

Bangor senior captain Greg Johnson stopped both shots he saw in his second stint in net after moving back from midfield.

Michaud stopped six of 11 shots for Caribou.

Bangor 4, Caribou 2

At Bangor, the Rams girls soccer team came into the second half Saturday tied 1-1 with Caribou, but Bangor got three goals from Jana Savage and turned up the intensity to win it.

The Rams got two quick goals in the second half from Savage, who also scored Bangor’s first goal, before Caribou answered with a score on a penalty kick by Kate Harrigan, who opened the scoring with a goal on a free kick.

But with 10 minutes left, Rams freshman forward Emily Capeheart anticipated an opening at the left of the goal, got a pass from Molly Wiebe and buried the ball to give Bangor a two-goal cushion.

Rams goalkeeper Anne Wright stopped four of six shots for Bangor, now 1-1. Caribou goalie Ashley Monahan made 19 saves on 24 shots for the Vikings, now 1-3.