Advance to ‘C’ regional soccer championship|
HOULTON, Maine — The upsets continued for the Bucksport High School girls soccer team Friday night when the No. 6 Golden Bucks stunned the No. 2 Houlton Shiretowners 1-0 in a Class C North semifinal.
The Bucks earned a spot in the semifinals with a 2-1 upset over No. 3 Central of Corinth earlier in the week.
Bucksport (7-6-4) advances to the Class C North championship at 2 p.m. Wednesday against the No. 1 Red Riots in Orono. Orono beat No. 5 George Stevens Academy 4-0. Houlton finished at 13-2-1.
The Red Riots defeated Bucksport twice during the regular season (6-1 Sept. 9 at Bucksport and 4-0 Sept. 23 at Orono).
Senior Eliza Hosford produced the game’s only goal Friday as she scored at the 29:00 mark of the second half. She made a nifty cross-corner shot to the opposite corner of the net that Houlton goalie Emma Hines had no chance to stop.
That goal held up as Bucksport shifted gears and packed its players into a tight defensive zone over the final 20 minutes of the contest, which thwarted numerous drives by the Shires.
Coming into the game, Bucksport coach Mike Garcelon said he hoped his squad could control the field, frustrate Houlton into making mistakes and play solid defense. All three of those things came to fruition.
Looking at the statistics, one might think Houlton won in a lopsided manner considering the Shires held an 18-1 advantage in shots. But Golden Bucks goalkeeper Bree Coombs did an exceptional job, making 11 saves, while the team’s defensive backfield cleaned up the rest and did a good job clogging up the front of the net. That made it difficult for Houlton to secure a passing lane.
“You could feel it as the game wore on, that it was becoming our style of game,” Garcelon said. “The Houlton kids played their hearts out, and we were just hoping we could stay with them and maybe have some luck come our way.”
Houlton coach Tim Tweedie commended Bucksport on playing an exceptional defensive game.
“[Bucksport] did a great job all day of plugging the passing lanes,” Tweedie said. “I honestly thought we would be able to get one by them. We had plenty of chances early, but just couldn’t get it to go. No. 14 [Casey Coombs] did a really great job defensively on Natalie [Hill]. They came up with a good game plan and are just a solid all-around team.”
The Shires played much of the second half without one of its top players — Katie Condon — who went down with an ankle injury with 3:35 to play in the first half. Condon was able to return to the field and played the final 13 minutes of the contest.
