ORONO, Maine — The winning streak is over for the Houlton girls soccer team. After rattling off 26 regular-season victories, spanning back to Sept. 21, 2013, the Shires fell to Orono, 2-1, Saturday in a well-played road game.
“We just have to regroup and continue to work on getting better every single day,” Houlton coach Tim Tweedie said. “Orono helped us see some of the facet of the game that we need to improve upon and I think we showed them a few things too. There’s no time to dwell on one loss, as we have Fort Kent coming to town on Wednesday. There’s still a very long way to go in the season.”
With the loss, the Shires slip to 4-1 and are second in the Class C North division, while Orono improves to 5-0 and is the top-ranked team in the region.
“Orono is a very good team, so we knew coming into the season that it was going to be a tough game,” coach Tweedie said. “They are always one of the top teams in Class C.”
Played under blustery conditions, Orono won the coin flip and took advantage by choosing to play with the wind at their backs in the first half. The Red Riots scored one minute into the game on an in-swinging corner kick by Brinsley Chasse that was carried into the top corner of the goal by the wind.
“That was a tough way to start,” Tweedie admitted. “But our team responded well and played Orono evenly for the next 20 minutes, despite the disadvantage of running into the strong wind.”
Orono scored again when Elise Kenney converted a Becky Lopez-Anido pass to put the team up 2-0. Houlton answered 50 seconds later as Katie Condon slid a pass through to a streaking Natalie Hill who sent a blast past the keeper to make it a 2-1 game.
“In the second half, we had more possession and some good chances, but we just couldn’t get the equalizer,” Tweedie said.
Houlton ended with a 17 to 15 advantage in shots for the game.
At Lee Sept. 16, Houlton blasted to a 7-0 shutout. Condon, Jamie Brown and Emma Peterson each scored a goal in the first half, sending the Shiretowners on their way to victory. Hill scored twice in the second half for Houlton, while Evelyn Pratt and Condon added a goal each.
Brown posted two assists and Emma Hines was not forced to make a save against two shots. Amber Wilcoxson made 15 saves on 38 shots for 0-3 Lee Academy and Kaylie Sawtelle made 3 saves on 5 shots.
