CARIBOU, Maine — Whenever Presque Isle and Caribou meet in sporting events, a good crowd is sure to follow. But when an Eastern Maine championship is at stake, that good crowd can, and did, turn into an amazing assembly of fans.
Case in point — last Wednesday’s Eastern Class B girls soccer championship.
Played at Caribou High School, a throng of more than 1,000 fans braved bitterly cold temperatures for the cross-town showdown between the Vikings and Wildcats.
No. 1 Caribou had no trouble beating No. 3 Presque Isle for the third time on the season with a 3-0 victory over Wildcats. With the win, Caribou advanced to the state championship game for the first time since 1988, when the Vikings competed in Class A. In the state championship, Caribou fell to Falmouth 1-0. (See accompanying story.)
“This is what it’s all about,” Caribou coach Todd Albert said. “This is probably the biggest game any of these girls have played.”
Jenna Selander, Olivia Sleeper and Lydia Kieffer each scored a goal for the Vikings. Kieffer and Paige Small also tallied assists.
Morgan Swan had five saves on seven shots for Caribou, while Presque Isle goalie Meredith Stewart had four saves on 13 shots.
Coming into the game, both coaches admitted there were few surprises left between the two clubs, considering the rich history between the two programs. Wednesday’s victory marked the fourth straight game that Caribou was victorious over the Wildcats.
Last year, the Vikings eliminated Presque Isle 2-1 in the semifinals in a game decided by penalty kicks. During the regular season this year, Caribou beat Presque Isle 5-3 on Sept. 1 and closed out the regular season with a 3-1 win Oct. 18.
The two squads were near mirror images this year. Caribou outscored its foes 46-14 in the regular season, while Presque Isle outscored its opposition 44-15.
“Everyone knows everyone pretty well,” Presque Isle coach Ralph Michaud said. “I think it’s pretty cool that this is an all-Aroostook County championship.”
“They know our personnel and we know theirs,” Albert said. “We might make a few changes here and there, but we know which players are dangerous for them [PI] and we know what we need to do. We just have to make sure we capitalize on our chances.”
Both coaches stated they planned to stick to their game plans.
“We have a few wrinkles I am going to throw in tonight,” Albert said. “Sometimes it’s hard when you have already beaten a team twice, you don’t want to do too many changes. But then again, if you are stagnant, and they make changes it can hurt you. It’s one of those chess games.”
Michaud said the key to the game, from the Wildcats’ perspective, was defense.
“We can’t let them score,” he said. “That’s going to be a pretty hard thing to do.”
Five minutes into the game, coach Albert introduced his “wrinkle” when he made a change to his front line.
“We made a change that I thought would work,” Albert said. “We moved Olivia (Sleeper) to striker, Jenna (Selander) to midfield and Lydia (Kieffer) and Jamie (Martin) to the outside. It’s something we practiced for a couple of days to mix things up a bit. It worked out pretty well.”
The Vikings capitalized on their scoring chances, as Selander converted a direct kick with 19:00 to play in the first half that PI keeper Stewart came close to blocking. From about 20 yards away, Selander sent a low-lined shot to the bottom right corner. Stewart guessed correctly as to which corner the ball was going, but the ball passed just inches away from her hands as she dove to the ground.
With that goal, Selander broke the school’s single-season scoring record with her 20th goal of the year. Laura Pinette (1986) and Beth Corrow (1985) held the previous record with 19 goals each. Selander is already the school’s all-time leading scorer for girls.
“It’s unbelievable,” Selander said. “All those years of practicing and running finally paid off. We got here and were able to win against a really good Presque Isle team. I couldn’t be more proud of us right now.”
Leading 1-0 at the halftime break, neither team was able to establish the upper hand until halfway through the second period. Sleeper gave Caribou a 2-0 lead as she took a pass from Kieffer just across the midfield line and attacked the net. Stewart made a nice effort diving to the ground to stop the shot, but in similar fashion as the first goal, the ball trickled just inches away from her fingers into the net.
The Vikings added an insurance goal three minutes later as Kieffer got into the scoring action when she took a feed from Small and fired a crossing shot that Stewart had no chance to deflect.
“Caribou has so many weapons it’s hard to focus on shutting down Selander, which I thought we did a good job on,” Michaud said. “The only time she had shots on goal were free kicks.”
Michaud said the Vikings played “very tough” defensively as well.
For the Wildcats, overcoming a sluggish start has been a recurring theme for the season. Presque Isle lost its season opener to the Vikings and followed up with a 0-0 tie to Old Town. The Wildcats rebounded nicely after that, winning 10 of their next 12 games to secure the third seed in the playoffs.
“I am very proud of the way my team responded to the slow start this season,” Michaud said. “To make a great run to the finals is a great accomplishment.”
