ORONO, Maine — The Houlton girls soccer team made it a clean sweep over Orono Saturday, shutting out the Red Riots, 3-0, to further establish the Shires as the top-ranked girls soccer team in Class C North.
The Shires (10-0) received goals from Kolleen Bouchard, Aspen Flewelling and Sierra Hoops and played stingy defense to record the team’s sixth straight shutout. Houlton has not given up a goal since Sept. 9, which was the last time they faced Orono (7-2).
During that Sept. 9 game, the two squads played in wild contest lasting nearly four hours due to three separate lightning delays before Houlton emerged victorious 3-2.
On Saturday, the only thunder and lightning to be found came from the Shires.
With 5:49 left in the first half, Flewelling lofted a well-placed corner kick that Bouchard found for a header into the top corner of the net, giving Houlton a 1-0 lead. That goal would be all the offense either team mustered in the first half, as defenders for both squads rose to the challenge.
“The game was very evenly played in the first 35 minutes as both teams had good chances to score, but a defender or goalkeeper (for both teams) always seemed to come up big,” Houlton coach Tim Tweedie said. “In the second half, we started putting more pressure on them. As we’ve talked about all year long, we take pride in our conditioning and Saturday’s game was another example of us being stronger in the second half than our opponents were.”
With 22:22 remaining in the game, Orono committed a foul 25 yards away from their goal resulting in a direct kick. Flewelling hit a bullet on a direct kick that found the top corner of the goal.
“Orono’s goalkeeper, Maggie Coutts was able to get a finger on the ball, but it was struck so well that it was basically unstoppable,” coach Tweedie said. “It was a perfect shot.”
Less than five minutes later, Flewelling capped her incredible game by hitting another corner kick that Hoops was able to volley into the goal.
“That gave us enough room that we were able to adjust our formation to become more defensive and go home with the 3-0 win,” Tweedie said. “Our team is playing about like we’d expect. We are in great shape as we’ve spent a lot of time running the hills so that we can be stronger in the second half of games than our opponents are.”
For Saturday’s game, coach Tweedie said he was approaching it like any other game. “I didn’t want our kids getting too hyped up for it as we know we have bigger games yet to come,” the coach said. “But, of course, we knew that there are implications on the line, such as home field advantage and a mental edge.”
In the boys contest, Houlton failed to produce a goal for the second straight game, resulting in a 2-0 loss.. Orono’s Calvin Murphy scored from an assist by Joseph Astumian with 20 minutes left to play in the first half.
A Houlton defender missed a clear during the second half, sending the ball into the Shires net for the second goal of the game.
AJ Henderson had 12 saves on 19 shots for the Shires and Nathan Reid had 5 saves against 11 shots from the Shires.
