The Presque Isle boys have seized the No. 1 ranking in Class B North heading into the soccer playoffs.
The Wildcats capped the regular season on the road Monday with a 2-0 victory over Brewer. It was the team’s fifth win in a row and eighth in its last nine games. Six of the team’s last seven victories have been by shutout.
Griffin Guerrette scored off a Gage LeTourneau assist with 15:25 left in the first half and Kyler Caron added an insurance goal with 18:26 left in the second as PI improved to 11-2-1 on the season. As a result, the Wildcats earned a bye through the preliminary round of the playoffs and will next host a quarterfinal match on Oct. 25.
Other Monday soccer summaries
Fort Kent boys 3, Caribou 2 (2OT) — Niko Naranja’s second goal of the match was the game-winner 1:30 into the second overtime period, as Fort Kent avenged its only loss by winning at Caribou Monday.
The Warriors held a 2-0 lead at intermission thanks to goals by Naranja and Austin Plourde, but the Vikes fought back late as Tom Pinette scored off an Alex Ezzy assist with 9:13 to play and Ezzy tallied a goal off a Parker Deprey throw-in with 4:50 remaining.
“It was a tremendous soccer game and our team played with a lot of heart and passion to tie the game up,” said Caribou coach Scott Hunter, whose team finished with a 7-7 record and now get ready for its prelim matchup.
Deprey had a good scoring chance in the first overtime, but his shot from 12 yards out sailed over the crossbar. Noah Hixon made 11 saves on 14 shots for Caribou, while Reese Pelletier had 13 saves on 20 shots for the Warriors (11-1-2).
Central Aroostook boys 4, Ashland 0 — In a make-up game at Ashland, Taylor Campbell scored a pair of goals and Hayden Kingsbury and Hunter Wardwell had the others as Central Aroostook of Mars Hill concluded its regular season at 13-1.
Ashland, which closes out the season tonight against Wisdom, is now 5-6-2.
Easton boys 2, Madawaska 1 — Kooper Kinney scored the game-winner off an Isaac Currier assist with 2:12 left in regulation to lift the Bears past the Owls in Easton.
With the win, Easton avenged a season-opening 4-3 loss at Madawaska. Collin Sotomayor scored tying goal for Easton off of another assist by Currier with 10:58 to go.
Max Gendreau scored for Madawaska in the first half off a Robert Lausier assist.
Kody Carter made six saves on nine shots for 7-6-1 Easton while Andrew Nadeau had nine on 17 shots for 7-7 Madawaska.
Madawaska girls 10, Easton 0 — Hannah Nadeau scored four goals, Jenna Dugal had three, Brianne Thibeault two and Kassie Blanchette one as the Owls closed the season with a road victory.
Katahdin boys 4, Southern Aroostook 3 –– At Dyer Brook, Cougars Chase Tapley, William Schilkowski, Bradley Hotham and Bryce Sinclair scored first-half goals as Katahdin built a 4-1 lead and withstood a second-half surge by the Warriors to finish the season with a 3-9-2.
Brett Williams had two goals and an assist for 1-12-1 Southern Aroostook and Gavin Vining collected a goal and an assist.
Katahdin outshot Southern Aroostook 34-12. Tanner Lane and Bradley Hotham combined to make four saves for the winners. Steven Rackcliff made 16 saves for the Warriors.
“Katahdin did a nice job passing the ball around and maintaining possession and was rewarded for it with goals,” Southern Aroostook coach Paul Sherman said. “We made a couple of serious defensive mistakes, but to Katahdin’s credit, they were in position to exert a lot of pressure.”
Sherman added the young team grew considerably on the field this fall. “Our game scores show that we played more competently as the season progressed,” he said. “We had to battle a lot of immaturity as soccer players and in terms of our behavior this year. Some disciplinary issues took a toll and interfered with our progress. However, many of us did learn how to play unselfishly and to put a premium on possessing the ball. We need to keep working on seeing the field and on our passing and trapping skills, but we did improve.”
The coach lauded the efforts of senior Hunter Walker, goalie Steven Rackliff, and sophomores Gavin Vining and Brett Williams. “If we’re going to compete against stronger teams next year, they will have to learn how to involve more of their teammates in the offense,” he said. “We had a roster of 16 and 12 of them were freshmen. Hopefully they will mature physically in the course of a year and will be able to merge improved athleticism with knowledge of the game.”
Southern Aroostook girls 1, Katahdin 0 — At Dyer Brook Monday, SA’s Hannah Landry scored the only goal of the game with 14:51 remaining in the first half to lift the Warriors past Katahdin. Delaney Greenlaw assisted on the goal.
Sydney Brewer made six saves on seven shots for the Warriors. Natalie Rickards stopped six of 10 shots for the 5-8-1 Cougars.
Tuesday’s games
Tuesday is the final day for regular season soccer games as the playoffs get underway Friday and Saturday, beginning with the preliminary round.
Contests scheduled Tuesday are Fort Fairfield at Washburn girls and boys at 3:30 p.m., Presque Isle at Brewer girls at 3:30 p.m., Wisdom at Ashland girls at 4 p.m. and boys at 6 p.m. and Fort Kent at Caribou girls at 7 p.m.
