CARIBOU, Maine — The Viking girls made easy work of the visiting Gardiner Tigers in Saturday’s Class B North preliminary playoff soccer match.
The 6-0 victory propelled No. 4 Caribou into tonight’s home quarterfinal against No. 5 Presque Isle. The game gets underway at 6 p.m.
On Saturday, Maddie Doucette opened the scoring 5:52 in, with Gabrielle Marquis picking up the assist. Ashley Matlock floated a long shot in from 20 yards out on the right side, with Searra Herbert assisting, nearly seven minutes later to make it 2-0.
Herbert scored goals 22 seconds apart midway through the half to double the lead, the first unassisted and the second courtesy of a Marquis pass, before Doucette capped the first-half blitz with another goal from distance at the 9:10 mark.
The two teams played a scoreless second half before Alexis Rodriguez converted a Danielle Hanson assist with just over two minutes remaining to account for the final score.
“I thought the girls really came to play and created a lot of goal-scoring chances,” said Viking coach Todd Albert, whose team outshot Gardiner, 34-4.
“Everyone was able to play quality minutes in a playoff game, so that was a positive,” he added.
Albert noted that the Tigers hadn’t surrendered more than three goals in a game all season. Kerrigan Manter and Jaelynn Doody shared the goalkeeping chores and combined for the shutout.
Caribou improved to 11-3-1 and Gardiner’s final record was 3-11-1.
Next up are the Presque Isle Wildcats, who notched a pair of 2-1 wins over the Vikes during the regular season, the last one needing overtime before being decided.
Caribou will be without its leading goal scorer as Albert confirmed that junior Searra Herbert suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament early in the second half against Gardiner.
“She was having a great year with 23 goals and five assists, so it’s pretty depressing,” Albert said, “plus not only is she a great athlete, but an even better person. Everyone will have to pick it up a little bit and play better.”
Both Albert and PI coach Ralph Michaud agreed that the team that capitalizes on its opportunities will come out on top.
“We have to finish while also playing good defense,” Albert said.
Caribou had earned home field advantage for tonight’s game thanks to last Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Madawaska in the regular season finale. Marquis came through with the game-winning goal with five minutes left. Herbert scored a minute into the match before the Owls tied it with 26 minutes to play.
