Ashland senior Amber Chasse chests the ball past Bangor Christian goalkeeper Shannon Shaw during the first half of the Class D girls’ semifinal playoff match held at the Johnson Athletic Complex in Presque Isle Saturday. (Courtesy of Dave Allen Graphics)
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Ashland girls continued their post-season dominance Saturday by putting the game away early against visiting Bangor Christian.
The defending Class D state champion Hornets were up 5-0 less than 10 minutes into the match and ended up coasting past the sixth-seeded Patriots, 8-0, in the soccer semifinal played at the Johnson Athletic Complex.
“We are faster on turf, but the girls played with a sense of urgency that I hadn’t seen before,” said Ashland coach Peter Belskis. “They understand how close they are to getting back to where they were last year and were ready to play from the get go, and they just took the game over.”
The contest was moved to the turf field in Presque Isle as Ashland’s field was unplayable because of all the rain that fell last week.
Amber Chasse put the second-ranked Hornets on the scoreboard first by chesting in a Morgan Doughty corner kick 1:05 into the match. Chasse assisted Doughty on the second goal at the 35-minute mark and 28 seconds later, Shelby Stolze scored unassisted to make it 3-0.
Ashland freshman Willow Hall takes the ball down the wing past Bangor Christian defender Kennedy Brown during the first half of the Class D North girls semifinal held at the Johnson Athletic Complex in Presque Isle Saturday. (Courtesy Dave Allen Graphics)
Chasse scored and Doughty assisted as the combination hooked up for the team’s fourth goal at the 32:26 mark. Then, Stolze once again netted an unassisted goal that came with 30:05 still to play in the opening half to cap the impressive offensive blitz.
Doughty and Stolze added goals before intermission to send Ashland in with a 7-0 advantage, capping a half in which the team outshot Bangor Christian by a 22-2 margin.
The Hornets went into more of a defensive mode over the final 40 minutes and still held an 11-6 shot advantage. Doughty came through with her third goal of the match from 35 yards out off Chasse’s assist with 15 minutes to play to punctuate the scoring.
Ashland has now outscored its two playoff opponents by a combined 18-0 margin. Hornet senior goalkeeper Megan Cote picked up her 11th shutout of the season by saving seven of eight shots. She has now allowed just five goals in her 15 starts.
Bangor Christian goalkeepers Shannon Shaw and Kelsea Deroche combined for 13 saves on 33 shots. Shaw was pulled after her team fell behind 5-0 early on.
Ashland will now go on the road and play No. 1 Penobscot Valley in Howland Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the regional finals.
