PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – When Aroostook County’s only Class B teams and long-time rivals meet on the soccer field, a hard-fought battle is generally in store. Both the Caribou and Presque Isle girls and boys teams met last Wednesday and Thursday in early-season matchups and the action was intense as usual, with each school coming away with bragging rights for one night.
In the first game, the Viking girls visited the Johnson Athletic Complex and handed Presque Isle its first-ever regular season loss in four years on the artificial turf by a score of 5-3. Caribou, which had beaten PI there in the Eastern Maine semifinals last October in a game decided by penalty kicks, won in more dominant fashion this time around.
The Vikings were down 1-0 after 10 minutes of play before answering the Wildcats’ corner kick goal with one of their own. Paige Small’s corner found Olivia Sleeper open on the far post and she one-timed it past PI goalie Meredith Stewart to knot the score.
“Getting down didn’t bother us because we knew we had a whole game ahead of us,” Selander said. “It’s the score at the end that matters so we kept our heads up and played our game.”
Caribou dominated the remainder of the half with some stellar team play and took the lead when Selander took a Katelyn Tardie pass and rocketed a shot from the right side and into the net with 19:31 left before intermission.
Less than eight minutes into the second half, another Small corner resulted in a head goal by Selander to make it 3-1 in favor of the visitors. Ten minutes later, Sleeper scored her second goal of the game on a nice individual sequence which included dribbling through the defense and nailing a shot from 10 yards out for a three-goal cushion.
Chandler Guerrette of the Wildcats, who assisted Kayla Richards for the first goal of the game, scored herself by lofting a 25-yarder over the head of Caribou goalie Morgan Swan with 19:20 to play. The Wildcats, who were playing their opening game of the season, still could not seize the momentum and Selander completed the hat trick at 4:01 by blasting an indirect kick under the crossbar off a tap by Small for the fifth goal.
Presque Isle scored an inconsequential goal with 38 seconds left, by Megan Ireland off a Chelsea Nickerson assist, to account for the final scoring, but the night belonged to the Vikings.
“I was so proud of the way we played as a team,” Selander said. “We were passing the ball like we should and looking up like we should and when that happened, a lot of opportunities came.
“We practiced some indoors this week to get used to passing the ball [on a faster surface]. We worked on sending the ball when we had someone open and we did a good job with that tonight.”
Caribou coach Todd Albert was proud of his team’s performance and said it has been awhile since the Vikings have had some favorable matchups against the Wildcats.
“It’s the first time I’ve been able to say in quite awhile that our forwards are a little better than their defenders,” Albert said. “When you put Jamie (Martin) and Olivia one the outside and Jenna up front, it makes it hard for a lot of teams to be able to stay with them.”
On the other hand, Caribou’s team depth was a big reason it was able to control PI’s offensive weapons.
“I tried to rotate players in and out to stay fresh against them, and they did a good job not giving them a lot of room and just containing them,” Albert said.
“In past years, when we had subs come in you could sometimes feel the connecting on the field broken, but I’m not noticing that this year,” Selander added. “We are all together, all the time.”
Shots were even at 18 in the match, with Swan finishing with seven saves for 2-0-1 Caribou and Stewart nine saves for the Wildcats.
In the boys game the next evening, Presque Isle came ready to play from the opening kickoff and scored four first-half goals en route to the 6-0 victory.
The Wildcats, playing their first home game after opening with a 2-2 tie at Fort Kent, put on a clinic throughout the first half, dominating time of possession and having their way on 50-50 balls at midfield.
“Our intensity during most of the first half, along with our ability to knock the ball around with excellent combination play and precise passing was outstanding,” said PI coach Scott Young. “It would be tough to find many real faults throughout the entire first half.”
The Wildcats outshot the Vikes 21-5 in the first half, and although Wilder York’s shot 1:50 into the game rattled off the left post, his team had several more chances later in the half and took advantage. Isaac Lajoie of the ‘Cats headed in a cross from Jacob Player at the 29:52 mark for a 1-0 lead, and wasted little time making it 2-0 as senior Josh Allen blasted a direct kick from 20 yards out at 28:07 that slipped under the top right corner of the goal.
Caribou’s inability to slow the PI attack resulted in some frustration and a pair of yellow cards being issued late in the half, and the Wildcats took advantage. Allen connected on another long direct kick which was stopped by Caribou keeper Garrett Jordan, but York was there to follow it in for the 3-0 PI lead with 6:05 remaining before intermission. The first-half scoring was completed after Allen took a pass from Caleb Mathers and lined a shot from 15 yards out to the left of Jordan and into the net with 5:07 to play.
“We saw how winners played soccer,” said Caribou coach Mark Shea. “They were a level above us and sustained that for the whole game.”
Presque Isle scored two quick goals to begin the second half, one by Cole Richards off an assist from Player and another by Jonah Stephenson off an Allen assist. That capped the strong offensive performance and the PI defense did the rest in giving goalie Andrew Kofstad his first career shutout. He collected four saves on the evening, while Jordan was credited with 18.
Caribou’s match against Hermon, originally to be played Saturday, was moved to Monday and the result was a 3-3 tie on the Hawks’ home field.
Hermon took a 2-0 lead in the first eight minutes of the game and the Vikes had to play catch-up the rest of the way.
Caribou’s Ben Blackstone did score a first-half goal before teammate Matt Till tied the game early in the second half.
The Hawks scored on a direct kick to regain the lead before Dean Walker assisted on Chad Caverhill’s goal with 18 minutes remaining to account for the final score as both teams played the rest of the half and through two overtime periods without another goal being scored.
“They caught us sleepwalking early, but I thought we took over from that point on,” Shea said. “The thing about us is that we don’t quit and [getting down early] we established possession and played much better.”
Caribou played Madawaska on the road last night and host Old Town Saturday at 6 p.m.
The Caribou girls are now 3-0-1 after scoring a 5-1 win over Hermon Monday behind two goals from Meredith Sleeper and one each by Ginger Kieffer, Selander and Olivia Sleeper.
Class D also played its share of games. In girls play, Limestone-MSSM won for the second time this season by blanking Wisdom Thursday, 6-0. Stephanie Leighton and Daniele Pelker led the Eagles with two goals each. Mariah Williams and Chelsea Leighton also scored goals.
Meghan Saucier scored the game-winner as Washburn tipped Fort Fairfield Thursday, 2-1. Rebecca Campbell scored the other Washburn goal, while Logan Bubar had FF’s lone tally.
In boys play, Tristan Kirk scored his team’s only goal in Limestone-MSSM’s 9-1 loss to Wisdom Thursday. The Eagles are now 0-4 on the season.
Jordan McLaughlin scored twice in Washburn’s 3-3 tie against Fort Fairfield. Travis Noyes had two of the Tigers’ goals.
