AUBURN — Matt Andreasen kind of expected a challenge Tuesday afternoon.

His Edward Little boys’ soccer team had already played a tough game with Oxford Hills earlier in the season. Now the Vikings may have been an even more dangerous team.

Oxford Hills is battling for a playoff spot and after falling behind to the Red Eddies Tuesday, the Vikings responded by being the aggressors in the second half.

“We expected that,” Andreasen said. “Oxford Hills, they’re a spot or two out of qualifying for the playoffs. We know they had to do some work. We had a dogfight early in the season. We were expecting more of the same. We knew they were going to come out swinging. They did. They came out with a lot of intensity and eventually they really took us out of our game. We lost our composure, which was a bit of an issue today.”

Though EL lost its cool in the second half, the Red Eddies didn’t lose the game, beating Oxford Hills 3-1. Despite the Vikings’ efforts to start the second half strong, EL got a second goal to build a 2-0 lead. The Vikings got within reach on a Matt Beauchesne goal but a late Maslah Hassan tally secured the win.

“We played hard and we didn’t give up,” said Oxford Hills coach Chris Morin. “We had our opportunities. We just didn’t take advantage of them and they did.”

Hassan and Zach Tannenbaum each had a goal and an assist for EL (7-4-1). Michael Hammond also scored.

“Hopefully we learn from today,” said Andreasen. “We were fortunate enough to win the game. This isn’t the last time things won’t go perfectly well for us. We just need to learn to deal with adversity better.”

Coming off an emotional 0-0 tie with Lewiston on Saturday, EL came out strong and took the lead with 22:14 left in the half. A Tannenbaum cross from the right side was redirected in front by Hammond.

EL had the chance to build on the lead. Luke Sterling had a tip in front that was saved. Navid Rohani had a pair of point-blank shots that were stopped.

“I thought we had a number of chances early on,” said Andreasen, whose team is ranked sixth in Eastern A. “We very well could have had two or three goals. We had easy finishes that we didn’t tuck away. “

Oxford Hills goalie Jake Beauchesne was superb in net with 12 saves.

“I thought our goalie made a lot of saves,” said Morin, whose team has allowed 26 goals in the last five straight losses. “He’s a freshmen, and he’s played very minute of every game.”

In the second half, the Vikings (2-11-0) came out with intensity and got a shot from Kenny Lynch that was stopped by EL goalie Llewellyn Jensen. Oxford Hills were the aggressors and were possessing the ball.

“We wanted to play quick and play one- touch and play to feet,” said Morin. “We’ve been working on it slowly, playing better angles and supporting players.”

Yet, it was EL that got the crucial next goal. A Hassan corner kick was nicely headed in by Tannenbaum 5:21 into the second half.

Just 2:20 later, the Vikings got within 2-1 when Matt Beauchesne finished off a free kick.

“We let them hang around,” said Andreasen. “We gave Beauchesne a good look. He’s as dangerous as anybody in the conference.”

After outshooting the Vikings 13-4 in the first half, EL managed just three shots through the first 27 minutes of the second half. Oxford Hills scrappy play had EL out of sorts, but the Vikings just couldn’t capitalize.

Beauchesne had another free kick that was saved with 11:30 left, and  Jensen made a stop on a Connor Beebe direct kick with 9:13 left.

Then Hassan finished off the game with a goal with 43 seconds left.

“They were really scrappy,” said Andreasen. “I give Oxford Hills a lot of credit. They played like they had to win. I thought we played like a team that was playing because it was another game on our schedule.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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