HOULTON, Maine — A Pat Howe goal just one minute into Saturday’s Class C North soccer prelim against Bucksport was all the scoring the Houlton boys needed as the No. 7 Shires beat No. 11 Bucksport 1-0 to advance in the playoffs.
Houlton (9-4-2) will now visit No. 3 Central (13-1) Wednesday in the quarterfinal round in Corinth. The two teams did not meet in the regular season, but shared a common opponent in Orono. The Shires lost to Orono 1-0 and 3-1 in their two contests, while Central beat the Red Riots 3-2, but also lost 4-3. Houlton has outscored opponents 58-14 on the season, while Orono has outscored its opponents 95-18.
Bucksport ends its season with a 2-12-1 record.
Against Bucksport, the Shires did a nice job of controlling the ball for much of the contest. Houlton received all the scoring it would need early in the game as Connor Grant carried the ball to the left wing and drew a pair of Bucksport defenders as he approached the net. Grant delivered a soft pass to Howe on the far post to beat Golden Bucks goalkeeper Cody Larsen with 38:53 to play in the first half for the only goal of the game.
“Defenses prepare for Connor because they know he’s a scorer,” Howe said. “So when they double teamed him, he hit me and I just put it into the open net. It felt pretty good, but it felt even better to hold them (Bucksport) off the scoreboard for 80 minutes.”
“We had a bit of a let down in the back, and they (Houlton) took advantage on the scoring play,” said Bucksport coach Matt Morrison. “The rest of the game played out as I anticipated. We heard we were pretty similar in style, with both teams doing a good job possessing the ball. Both sides had lots of good chances.”
In the final minute of the game, Bucksport unleashed a furious bid to produce the game-tying goal and had several good scoring chances. The best chance game when Houlton goalie AJ Henderson was out of the net to make a save, but the ball got past him and appeared to be heading for the goal. Shire defender Dylan Johnston successfully cleared the ball away to preserve the shutout.
“We stepped up on the line and Dylan did a nice job clearing the ball out of the box,” first-year Houlton coach Caleb Byron said. “We made sure everyone was taking care of their responsibilities and communicating with each other. Our back end play has been really important for us this year.”
Larsen made 11 saves on 15 Houlton shots for Bucksport, while Shire netminder Henderson stopped four of five shots. Larsen had to leave the game in the final minute of action after colliding with Grant in the scoring area while both were going for the ball.
Houlton held an 8-1 advantage in corner kicks.
