AUBURN —  After a victory over Lewiston Saturday, the Edward Little girls’ soccer team hoped it might be the springboard it needed for some key wins down the stretch.

Instead, it proved to just be an anomaly for the Red Eddies. EL has lost two straight since, including Wednesday’s 5-1 setback to Mt. Ararat. That makes five losses in the last six games for EL, which is losing ground fast on securing a playoff berth.

“I thought that (Lewiston game) could be a momentum-builder for the last couple of games,” said EL coach Craig Latuscha. “It’s just not happening.”

EL (5-7) was ranked 10th in the Eastern A standings and a win over the sixth-ranked Eagles (9-3) would have given them a boost. EL lost to the Eagles 2-0 earlier in the year, but after a 2-1 loss against Cony Tuesday, the Red Eddies fell behind 2-0 in the opening half and watched Mt. Ararat dominate the rest of the way.

“The past four games have been crucial for us to give us a chance to make the playoffs,” said Latuscha, whose team lost to Brunswick 3-0, Erskine 2-1 and Morse 1-0 prior to the win over Lewiston.

Jaymee Wallace had three goals and an assist for Mt. Ararat while Randi London had a goal and two assists.  The two senior forwards worked well together and teamed up for the first two goals in the opening half.

“We’ve been playing with each other forever,” said Wallace. “I think we just know each other so well and know each other’s runs.”

The Eagles outshot EL 17-9, and EL keeper Taylor Landry made 11 saves.

EL struggled to find much rhythm or consistency throughout the game. Emily Hartnett had a bid early on and Kory Norcross had a shot late in the half but those were the best opportunities EL could muster in the first half.

The Red Eddies lone goal came from Frankie Lally with 5:03 left in the game. She was moved up from sweeper to the front and converted a Lexis Clavet pass from the midfield.

“We couldn’t get into a flow,” said Latuscha. “There were a lot of emotions today. It was senior day. I thought we’d have a more positive hype, but it wasn’t really like that. It was more like a dead atmosphere.”

Neither team got much going early on. Then with 17:35 left, London put a corner kick in front and Wallace was there to redirect it.

“Jaymee and I have played together since we were like nine,” said London. “I can put a ball, and I know Jaymee will be there. On the corner, I was like ‘I’m going to kick that to Jaymee and she’s going to kick it in.’ That’s what happened.”

The two teamed up again with 12:48 left. London crossed a pass for Wallace to head in front for a 2-0 lead.

“After the second goal, we started picking it up and playing better and playing our game more,” said Wallace, whose team plays Morse this weekend. “We started off slow in this game. We were silent and not talking. I think we were focused on Morse a little bit more than we should have been. We realized what we needed to do and we took care of it.”

Just 7:05 into the second half, Sonja Robert scored from the right side off a Hannah Hauser pass. Then Wallace set up London for a 4-0 lead with 18:43 left. Wallace completed the hat trick from the left side off a pass from Celia Ouellette with 9:36 remaining.

“We made a lot of mistakes,” said Latuscha, whose team finishes the regular season at undefeated Brunswick and Oxford Hills. “A good team like Mt. Ararat, a good program with a lot of tradition, is going to take advantage of that. They’ve got some good players. If we make a mistake, they’re going to capitalize, and we made too many mistakes. Great teams are going to take advantage of us. They put the ball in the net. We lost a lot of marks and they scored.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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