Wildcats, Vikes set for EM finals soccer showdown
By Joseph Cyr and Kevin Sjoberg
For the second consecutive year, the Presque Isle and Caribou girls soccer teams will square off for a third time on the season. This time, an Eastern Maine championship will be on the line.
The third-seeded Wildcats and No. 1 Vikings will play in Caribou tonight at 6 p.m., with the winner advancing into Saturday’s state final to be played at either Falmouth or Hampden. The two teams met in the semifinals a year ago, at Presque Isle, with Caribou winning on penalty kicks.
The Vikes have also won both regular season matchups in 2010 – 5-3 in Presque Isle Sept. 1 and 3-1 in Caribou Oct. 18.
Michaud recognizes that his team, now 12-3-1 overall, is in for a tough match against Caribou, which hasn’t lost at home this season.
“They are the fastest team in Eastern Maine,” Michaud said, “and speed kills.”
However, Michaud likes the way his team has played the last four regular season games and throughout the post-season and knows his squad will be ready.
“Going up against Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference teams like Winslow and Camden Hills, we’ve had to play more of a physical game,” he said. “We’re not real big, but we have some tough kids.”
Michaud is excited to be a part of history with the Caribou-PI rivalry now extending into the post-season with a title at stake.
“We’ve played them in the tournament in basketball and the two teams have met in playoffs in other sports, but I’m pretty sure Caribou and Presque Isle have never met in a final, at least not for quite some time” Michaud said, “so it’s pretty special.”
On Saturday in the semifinal round against Camden Hills in Rockport, Presque Isle was faced with the task of trying to shut down high-scoring Windjammer freshman Melanie Vangel (32 goals this season), and the Wildcats were able to do just that.
PI also got a first-half goal from Chelsea Nickerson off a direct kick and a second-half goal from Shae Adler following a throw-in to win, 2-0.
Defense, however, was the key for the ’Cats.
“We practiced for two days working on defending [Vangel],” he said. “We put a player in front of her and a player behind her and took turns doing this with two other players. They did a great job taking one offensive player completely out of the game.”
The Wildcat defenders getting the job done on Vangel were Hillary Albert, Elise Jones, Kailey Shaw and Emma Bartlett.
After a 4-1/2 hour bus trip, Michaud said the first 20 minutes of the game are crucial. Presque Isle “weathered that stretch and then we started to control play,” he said. Nickerson scored with 4:05 left in the first half, while Adler’s clinching goal came with 15 minutes to go in the contest.
Goalkeeper Meredith Stewart stopped all five shots she faced for the shutout.
“It was a great team win,” Michaud said.
In the first-round contest, a scoring explosion was not anticipated, but was certainly welcomed by Michaud.
History was made as the Wildcats scored early and often en route to a 7-1 shellacking over No. 6 Winslow (10-3-2) Tuesday in the quarterfinals.
“I’ve been coaching here a long time and 7-1 is the largest margin of victory we have ever had in a playoff game,” Michaud said. “That was pretty convincing.”
Presque Isle’s Chandler Guerrette and Megan Ireland both scored two goals in the lopsided playoff. Kayla Richards added a goal and an assist, while MacKenzie Pinette, Adler and Shea Brown had one goal apiece. Nickerson and Guerrette each added one assist.
Kelsea Bouchard scored the lone Winslow goal with 15:40 remaining in the first half.
Stewart played the bulk of the game in goal for the Wildcats. Liza Buck replaced her late in the game. The two combined to make six saves on seven shots. Their counterpart from Winslow, Elizabeth Ferry, made nine saves on 17 shots.
Presque Isle did an exceptional job on its corner kicks, which resulted in a couple of Presque Isle’s seven goals.
“We have a number of weapons on corner kicks,” Michaud said. “Chandler takes all of our right-footed kicks, while Chelsea takes the left-footed ones.”
Richards opened the scoring five minutes into the game on a well-placed corner kick by Guerrette. Guerrette followed up with a penalty kick with 31:24 to play and Ireland scored her first goal with 20:57 remaining on a strange shot that first hit the far post and was deflected by Winslow’s goalie back to Ireland who was able to walk it into the open net.
Winslow finally got on the scoreboard with 15:40 remaining when Stewart nearly made a spectacular diving save, but was unable to secure the ball. Bouchard pounced on the loose ball for the empty netter.
Presque Isle quickly got that goal back and them some as Guerrette tallied her second goal of the half with 7:40 on the clock.
Pinette tallied the final goal of the first half when she alertly intercepted a loose ball from about 15 yards out and sent a low-lining laser of a shot into the left corner of the net, giving Presque Isle a 5-1 lead that held until the break.
In the second half, Presque Isle added two more goals, the first on a corner kick by Nickerson that found Ireland on the far post for a header. Brown closed out the scoring after a brief scrum in front of the net with a rocket shot to the left corner of the net.
“You have to tip your hat to Winslow,” Michaud said. “They have had an incredible run, winning five of the last six Eastern Maine championships. But we have sent them home twice now. We attacked the ball well today. Statewide, people know about Kayla Richards, but after today, they may know Chandler Guerrette and Megan Ireland too.”
HEADS UP — PI’s Mackenzie Pinette, right, heads the ball over Camden Hills Julia Gowesky during Saturday’s semifinal game in Rockport.
LEG WORK — PI’s Shae Adler looks to clear the ball out during play Saturday in Rockport.
