Sports Reporter
The final official Heal Point standings will most likely be released by the Maine Principals’ Association later today or Thursday, but by all indications it appears a few teams in central Aroostook County will represent their region in the upcoming playoffs, which get under way with the preliminary round on Saturday.
The Presque Isle and Caribou boys are locks for the post-season in Eastern Maine Class B, while Ashland and Central Aroostook both have a good chance to secure a top-four position in Class D. The quarterfinals are set for next Wednesday, Oct. 28.
Limestone-MSSM, Easton, Fort Fairfield and Washburn closed out their regular seasons and all failed to qualify for the EM Class D playoffs.
Summaries of the final regular season matches, played through Monday, Oct. 19, are as follows:
Ashland 4, Fort Fairfield 3 – At Presque Isle Monday, the Hornets secured one of the top three positions in the Eastern Maine Class D soccer standings as Casey Cobb scored off a Kenny Tarr assist with 1:37 to go in regulation to break a 3-3 tie.
Cobb scored earlier in the contest, while Tarr and Royce MacDonald had the other goals for the 11-3 Hornets. Andrew Libby and Brandon Saucier had assists.
Josh Booth scored two goals and Derek Dufour had another for Fort, who needed a victory to have a chance to qualify for the post-season. Travis Noyes collected two assists and Josh Churchill had the other for the 4-9-1 Tigers.
In the battle of the goalies, Ashland’s Bobby Gardner saved 16 of 19 shots and Chris Weeks turned away 22 of 26 attempts.
Central Aroostook 2, Van Buren 0 – At Mars Hill Monday, a pair of Dan Brewer goals, both which came in the second half, powered the Panthers to their 11th win of the season. Ross Grass was the winning goalie, saving six of nine shots for the shutout.
Eric Laplante saved nine of 20 shots in goal for the Crusaders, which wrapped up their season at 4-10.
Presque Isle 5, Mattanawcook 0 – At Lincoln Saturday, the Wildcats were able to cap off their regular season without losing a match by shutting out the Lynx.
Presque Isle, which enters the Eastern Maine Class B playoffs with a 12-0-2 record and will certainly be one of the top two seeded teams in the division, had goals from Andrew Legassie, Nathaniel Postell, Wilder York, Ryan Thibeau and Dillion Kingsbury.
“We played a lot of different guys in different positions and really had fun with it,” said Young, whose team had beaten Mattanawcook at home eight days earlier, 10-0.
Sophomore Andrew Kofstad, the Wildcats’ usual No. 2 goalie behind Kingsbury, saved all eight shots he faced and “did a great job,” according to Young.
The Wildcats will learn of their playoff seed when the final standings become official later this week. Presque Isle is the defending EM champions.
“Now we are looking forward to putting together a good, hard week of practice in order to prepare for the playoffs,” Young said.
Katahdin 2, Fort Fairfield 2 (2OT) – At Stacyville Friday, the Tigers were unable to hold on to a 2-0 halftime lead as the Cougars charged hard in the late going to salvage the tie.
Andrew Tuck and Weeks were the Tigers’ goal scorers. Josh Booth picked up an assist on Tuck’s goal. Tyler Churchill was Fort’s goalkeeper and saved 14 of 25 shots.
Washburn 1, Van Buren 0 – At Washburn Thursday, Jordan McLaughlin scored off an Adam Wilcox assist midway through the second half to provide the game’s only goal as the Beavers closed out their season with a victory over the Crusaders.
Justin Howe and Connor Fitzpatrick shared goalie chores for Washburn and combined for five saves on seven shots. The Beavers, who will not qualify for the playoffs this season, finished out its year with a 3-10-1 mark.
Ashland 5, Wisdom 3 – At St. Agatha Thursday, Casey Cobb and Kenny Tarr had two goals each to help carry the Hornets to another victory.
Ashland was behind 2-1 at halftime, but came through with its third comeback victory of the season. Both teams fired 27 shots on goal, but the Hornets came through as Bobby Gardner collected 23 saves and Wisdom’s Ryan Blanchette had 22.
Brandon Saucier had Ashland’s other goal. Tarr also finished with three assists.
Hornet coach Kevin Paradis said his team did a good job defensively on Wisdom’s Curtis Picard, who Paradis called the fastest opponent he has seen all year. Andrew Libby had the defensive assignment and limited Picard to a single goal.
“The Class D playoffs will be very exciting this year,” said Paradis, who has had a chance to scout high seeds Bangor Christian, Machias and Calvary Chapel during the regular season. “Any of the top eight could win it.”
Paradis hopes his team will be able to maintain its No. 2 position. Calvary Chapel is a lock for the No. 1 seed, but Central Aroostook, Bangor Christian and Machias are all close behind the Hornets in the race for the second slot.
Central Aroostook 6, Fort Fairfield 3 – At Fort Fairfield last Tuesday, the Panthers doubled up on the Tigers as Spencer Stetson and Daniel Brewer scored two goals each and Brandon Anthony and Logan Thomas one each.
Brandon York and Tyler Rusby chipped in with assists and Ross Grass made eight saves in goal for the Panthers.
Travis Noyes had all three Tiger tallies. Weeks had eight saves in goal.
Presque Isle 2, Caribou 0 – At Presque Isle last Tuesday, the Wildcats avenged an early-season tie with their rivals 13 miles to the north by scoring a goal in each half and keeping the Vikes off the scoreboard.
Wilder York netted the first goal and Josh Allen tacked on an insurance goal with just over a minute to play. Presque Isle had some good chances to score early on, while the Vikes also had a pair of good opportunities to tie the game, but came up empty.
“We came out very strong and determined,” Young said. “In the second half, we were even stronger, but Caribou played tough and it took most of the half to finish them off with a nice goal from Josh.”
The Vikes had to play the final 10 minutes without the services of top offensive weapon Cameron Anderson, who was issued a yellow card for a trip from behind.
“They are a better team than we are right now and both of their goals were quality goals,” Shea said of the Wildcats.
Jacob Player had an assist for PI. Kingsbury needed to make just two saves on five shots for the shutout.
Jordan stopped 10 of 19 shots in goal for the Vikings.
Presque Isle and Caribou battled to a scoreless tie when the two teams met in Caribou Sept. 15.
Staff photo/Joseph Cyr
STYMIED – Fort Fairfield’s Travis Noyes, right, leaps into the air to block the shot by Katahdin’s Braden Cunningham during Friday’s boys soccer game in Stacyville. The two squads battled to a 2-2 stalemate after two overtime periods.
Contributed photo/Dave Allen Graphics
ISAAC LAJOIE tries to beat Caribou goalkeeper Garrett Jordan to the ball during last Tuesday’s 2-0 win by the ’Cats
