FARMINGDALE — For the second game in a row, Monmouth Academy sophomore Avery Pomerleau scored a goal in overtime. Friday, he did it twice.
Pomerleau’s first boot was nullified after officials ruled he was offsides, but with a second chance — on a third rebound off the crossbar — he didn’t miss.
Pomerleau’s header in the second overtime gave the fourth-seeded Mustangs a 2-1 victory over top-ranked Hall-Dale in a Class C South boys’ soccer semifinal at the Melvin H. Simmons Complex on Friday.
“It’s actually unbelievable right now. I can’t believe this,” Pomerleau said. “I was hoping it was going to go in.”
Pomerleau scored the game-winning goal against North Yarmouth Academy Wednesday to propel Monmouth (13-3) into the semifinal round. He looked to do the same five minutes into the first overtime Friday, heading in his own rebound against Hall-Dale (13-1-2) goalie Andy Peterson.
But in the maroon-colored euphoria, the linesman stuck his flag out, indicating Pomerleau was offsides.
Monmouth goalie Bradley Neal made a save on the Bulldogs’ Josh Berberich five minutes later to allow the game to go to a second overtime.
Travis Hartford took a throw-in deep in Hall-Dale territory in the second minute of double overtime, and the throw found Pomerleau on the far side, where his first header attempt went off the crossbar. Two more did the same before Pomerleau eventually headed the ball into the back of the net. Upset complete.
Monmouth head coach Joe Fletcher called Pomerleau’s goal “fitting,” after what he thought was a questionable call took away Pomerleau’s would-be game-winner in the first overtime.
“It doesn’t really matter, we won the game,” Pomerleau said of the call.
Fletcher said his team needed to regroup after the call, as his team did when it went down 1-0 in the first half on a Hall-Dale goal by Tyler Dubois, who scored off Alex Guiou’s direct kick.
Monmouth had just one shot on goal in the first half while playing into the wind. Fletcher purposely chose to face the wind in the first half, hoping for a “stalemate” at halftime so his team would have the wind advantage in the second half. The plan didn’t go totally they way Fletcher hoped, but he told his team it had “plenty of time” to net the equalizer.
The Mustangs didn’t wait too long, as Gage Cote’s free kick 14 minutes in bounced around in the box before Dylan Goff looped a shot over Peterson.
“I just happened to be at the right spot, right time and I just hit it in with my left,” Goff said. “I thought it was going to go over at first. It just sank, and it was amazing.”
“It was just a good rivalry game. The difference between both teams, we’re pretty evenly matched,” Hall-Dale coach Andy Haskell said. “In playoff soccer you want to score on still balls.”
The Bulldogs, who had six shots on goal in the first half, had just two in the second. Many more were off-target.
Pomerleau was on target when it mattered most.
“He’s one of those players — he’s in the right place at the right time,” Haskell said of Pomerleau. “The ball came into the box and he just put the ball in.”
“We have a never-say-die attitude,” Fletcher said. “Against NYA, we could have easily folded our tent, lost that game. It’s a testimony to the work that we put in.”
Monmouth will play the winner of No. 2 Waynflete and No. 6 Sacopee Valley in the regional final next Wednesday. For now, they can celebrate another nail-biter of a comeback playoff win.
“Nothing’s better than this,” Goff said. “It’s cloud nine.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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