BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor High School girls soccer team sewed up the top seed for the Class A North playoffs as the Rams rebounded from their only loss of the season to beat arch-rival Brewer 6-0 at Cameron Stadium on Seniors Night for the Rams on Tuesday night.
Bangor, which was coming off a 4-0 loss at Brunswick, finished its regular season at 13-1 while the Witches, who had won their previous three games to elevate themselves into the playoff picture, wound up 3-9-2.
The two teams could meet in the quarterfinals.
University of Maine-bound senior midfielder Olivia Scott and junior midfielder Teagan Atherley each scored a pair of goals for the Rams with senior striker Lily Chandler and sophomore forward Madison McLean scored the other goals.
“That’s a really great team, man,” said Brewer coach Phil Turmelle. “They pass, they move, they do the things we try to do. We have been trying to improve on those all season. We had it going for a little while, and they did a great job taking it away and playing their game.”
Bangor opened the scoring 6:53 into the game when Scott nearly curled a 25-yard shot into the upper corner to the right of Brewer sophomore goalie Gabby Chasse.
“Brewer doesn’t press much and they have a pretty young goalie so if they were going to give us space to shoot, we were definitely going to take it,” said Scott.
Brewer had a golden opportunity to tie it when Violette Damon raced on to a perfect pass down the right wing and broke in alone on Bangor goalie Eva Coombs. But the alert Coombs raced out and dove and made a terrific save by smothering her shot.
“That was a big swing,” said Turmelle. “It might have been a different story (if we had scored). Credit to their ‘keeper for coming through and stopping that.”
Less than three minutes later, Bangor expanded the lead to 3-0 with goals just 1:22 apart by Scott and Chandler off Atherley passes.
“There were a bunch of little passes in the box and I wound up with it in front of goal,” said Scott. “It wasn’t a very pretty shot but I got my foot on it.”
Scott’s two goals were her 11th and 12th of the season.
Chandler made it 3-0 as she raced onto a pass from Atherley down the right wing side and roofed a powerful shot from nine yards out into the upper short side corner.
“Teagan played a great through ball over their back line diagonally and I was just able to rip it in,” said Chandler whose goal was her third of the campaign.
Atherley scored her 19th and 20th goals early in the second half, first using the inside of her right foot to steer a perfect low cross from Kelsey Kull past Chasse and then hitting a shot from the top of the penalty area that squeezed between the goalie’s arms and legs.
McLean scored her third late in the game with a 12-yard shot.
“The kids played hard. We got better defensive rotations tonight,” said Bangor coach Jay Kemble. “We still have to clean some things up everywhere. But the kids competed. It was Senior Night. They were excited and I thought our pressure was pretty good. Early on, we put a lot of pressure up front, and we were relentless.
“So even when we lost balls, we won them back,” he added.
Bangor attempted 31 shots to Brewer’s three. Coombs finished with two saves and Chasse had 11 stops including a diving gem off a penalty kick.
Scott was pleased with the team’s performance.
“We played really well as a team. It was a great way to end the season,” said Scott. “It was a great Senior Night. It was a good way to work out the kinks we had in that Brunswick game.”
Brewer was without talented junior wing and co-leading scorer Lauren Vanidestine along with reliable junior back Joslyn King (Achilles tendon) while Bangor was without standout forward-back Ayzlynn Gifford (knee). Gifford is also a junior.
