BRUNSWICK — For 20 minutes, Brunswick captain Jesse Arford watched his team get pushed back by the Edward Little Red Eddies boys’ soccer team. EL led 1-0, and the Dragons were rarely able to cross midfield, much less possess the ball.

“We came out flat, and you could see it in warm-ups and in the pre-game talk,” said Brunswick coach Mark Roma of his team’s start.

Arford was having none of it. Along with JD Souza, Cameron Glover and Keenen Welzel, the Dragons began taking and possessing the ball. Where there was no room in the midfield early, there was a pasture full of open grass. As the tide turned, Brunswick tied the game early in the second half, then celebrated when Arford scored 40 seconds into the second overtime for a 2-1 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference win.

“That was a very good win,” said Roma, whose Dragons improved to 3-2-1 and visit Skowhegan on Friday (3:30 p.m.). “The second half was going to define us after coming out flat. I thought I knew who we were until that first half, then I really wasn’t sure. You do what you can to fix it. We could all feel it. They’re too good, and I had the feeling it was going to click and we would figure it out. They kept working, kept working, and we luckily got one in to tie it up and won in overtime.”

Red Eddies coach Matt Andreasen felt his team’s lack of depth, especially with defenseman Ben Steele out of the lineup with an injury, hurt his team.

“For us, it is depth. We just don’t have a lot of numbers. We have a few kids that can play at a high level, but we are waiting for others to step up,” said Andreasen, whose Red Eddies fell to 3-2-1 and host Brewer on Friday (3:30 p.m.). “We are not getting that right now. The kids are getting fatigued and they are dropping farther and farther back. It is hard to generate chances late in the game when you are that far back. We are just a little bit thin right now.”

EL surely didn’t look thin early, as Maslah Hassan finished off a flip throw-in from Luke Sterling just 7:16 in for a 1-0 Red Eddies lead. EL held a 3-1 shooting edge through 20 minutes.

A long run by Welzel turned the tide for the hosts, with EL goaltender Llewellyn Jensen (five saves) making a sure-handed stop on a Welzel scoring chance.

Brunswick kept making runs, with Jensen watching two shots from Welzel sail high before snagging a hard shot from Cole Faulkner.

Second half Dragons

The second half began the way the first had ended, with Brunswick continuing to stretch the EL defense.

Brunswick scored the equalizer 5:54 into the frame when Souza sent a long pass to a sprinting Welzel, who cut right before firing left, slipping the ball inches past the dive of Jensen for a 1-1 tie.

“Urgency set in for them,” said Andreasen of Brunswick. “They fell behind and knew that they needed to step up today. We didn’t have anyone step up and answer that call. We are relying on a lot of young kids who may or may not be ready yet for this level. We will get there with time, but Brunswick is a more polished product right now.”

Brunswick went for the go-ahead goal, with Jensen making three second-half stops, including a dive of an Arford shot with 5:27 remaining in regulation.

In the first overtime, neither team produced much offensively, but in the second five-minute session, Arford wasted little time putting the Red Eddies away. He received a pass from Faulkner and quickly launched a shot through traffic from 20-yards out. The ball was perfectly place, clanging off the right goal post and into the cage for the 2-1 Brunswick win.

“We needed this win, a tournament-like game,” said Arford. “We realized that 20 minutes into this game if we lost it our season would be worse off. It was do or die. I hadn’t scored since Oxford Hills last year, and I have been a striker all season. It was a huge relief, a huge win.”

“These are games that we used to lose.” said Roma after his Dragons jumped all the way up to No. 2 in the Eastern Maine Class A Heal Point Standings. “We would come close, have that moral victory, but lose. The Bangor game (a 1-1 tie on Friday) is a game that we have to learn to win. Today, we did that.”

Andreasen praised the play of some of his youngsters.

“Tyler Morin gave us some good minutes today, along with Jake Kyajohnian. They are both freshmen, and they were as good as we have seen them this season. But, losing certainly does not feel good,” said the coach.

Brunswick finished with a 14-5 shots advantage. Dragons netminder Josh Dorr had one save. The Red Eddies held a 5-2 edge in corner kicks.

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