By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
WATERVILLE — Third-year Caribou boys’ soccer coach Scott Hunter called Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to Waterville in the Eastern Maine Class B preliminary round of the playoffs “a microcosm of the team’s season.”
The Vikings gave the host Panthers, new to the division after having competed in Class A over the years, all they wanted in the matchup between the eighth- and ninth-place teams.
Caribou started out very strong, with senior Matt Milliard’s move to the front line from his normal midfield position paying dividends early on.
He came close to scoring early in the game and in another charge toward the goal was fouled, setting up teammate Kameron Manter’s goal off a direct kick.
It was Manter’s 14th goal of the season, a team high.
“We used Matt up front in our loss to Madawaska in the last game of the season and we generated some great chances with him on the front line, so we thought we’d try it,” Hunter said. “We were kind of limping into the playoffs with a lot of close, low-scoring losses, so we wanted to try something different.”
Christian Rustad evened the score for Waterville before Milliard tallied later in the half to give Caribou the 2-1 win. Milliard injured his groin on the play.
He came back in to begin the second half, but reaggravated the injury soon after intermission and had to sit out the remainder of the match.
Tommy Sampson of the Panthers tied the game with 14 minutes left to send the game into overtime and he tallied the game-winner with 13 seconds left in the first overtime to end it.
Hunter said Caribou had some chances in the overtime to go ahead, but the shot went over the cross bar.
A little over a minute later, Sampson notched the game-winner with a shot that caromed off the bottom of the crossbar, landed on the goalline and deflected in.
“It was a hard-fought, even, well-played game,” Hunter said.
Caribou finished with a 6-8-1 record, while Waterville advanced to play No. 1 Ellsworth in this afternoon’s quarterfinal match.
“I thought we rose to the occasion,” Hunter said. “I think we won Waterville’s respect and afterwards they knew they’d been in a dogfight.”
The coach said his starters in the middle and the back line played the whole game in what he termed a gutsy performance.
“I rode those guys like horses through the desert,” Hunter said. “I was proud of our kids — they played with a lot of courage.”
The coach reflected back at the game with a little bit of frustration regarding the outcome.
“As soon as that ball went in, I looked at [assistant coach’ Dave [Wakana] and told him that this was a microcosm of the season. We played very well and lost another tough one.”
It was Caribou’s sixth loss of the season by a one-goal margin and the Vikes’ second overtime defeat.
