AUBURN — The Bangor Rams shot, and shot, and continued to shoot in their KVAC girls’ soccer tilt against the Edward Little Red Eddies on Friday afternoon.
The defending Class A state champions fired off 13 shots in the opening half, with no positive result. But they finally converted on their 17th attempt, a strike by Megan Conner 4:57 into the second half en route to a 2-0 victory.
Bangor finished the game outshooting EL 28-7.
“I thought once we settled down and possessed the ball a little bit, it got us some more opportunities,” Bangor coach Joe Johnson said. “They are a physically fast team, and it’s tough to keep the ball against them.”
The Rams (3-0) made it difficult for the Red Eddies (2-1) to cross midfield in the opening half, and EL only had one shot toward the net. EL did have one corner in the first 40 minutes, which was one of the few opportunities they had in the offensive zone.
“I’ve got to be honest, the first half, I thought we had two prime opportunities to score a goal where we didn’t score,” EL coach Craig Latuscha said. “When you give a good team and you give them a chance like that, they are going to counter and score goals. That’s why they are the defending state champs. We knew what they were going to bring.”
He said if his club was able to convert on one of those opportunities, it’s a different game.
Conner’s goal was one a coach would draw up in practice. Eliza Jansujwicz set her up in the center of the field around the 10-yard mark. Conner hit a riser that was out of the reach of Red Eddies keeper Taylor Depot.
“That’s something we have been working on, dropping it back because if you get in the middle with a bunch of people, you are better off getting someone the ball where they are open,” Johnson said. “Finally we got one that worked. She hit it hard.”
It was a defensive breakdown for EL.
“I think we played well in the first half, in the second half we were getting tired,” Latuscha said. “They had kind of taken the game over a little bit and they took advantage of the opportunities they got. They had a free shot outside the 10 all by herself of course they are going to score.”
Depot made 11 saves in the game.
Bangor had a chance to go up 2-0 when another rising shot that hit the crossbar 13:30 into the half.
The final 20 minutes in the second half, EL started to get things going offensively. With 17:20 remaining, the ball was volleyed into the box with a cross from the left side of the field. Rams keeper Maddie Hodgdon leaped and came down with the ball for one of her three saves to stop the scoring chance.
With 11:45 remaining, the Red Eddies bench and fans came back to life with a direct kick opportunity. It was a strong boot to the net from the left side, but it came right to Hodgdon.
“I think it was getting to the end, I think it was crunch time, we didn’t want to give up,” Latuscha said. “We tried a bunch of different things. We added a couple of extra attackers at the top (of the box) as you noticed. I would rather lose at the beginning of the season like this than the end. We learned a lot of things today and it’s only going to help us later down the road.”
Bangor killed EL’s momentum with 6:37 to go when Depot went to challenge the ball, but Libby Spekhardt stayed calm and kept the ball low enough to sneak by Depot. An EL defender was a tad late to keep the ball from crossing the goal line.
Brianna Adams was credited with the assist on the goal.
While EL was moving everyone forward to get a goal of their own, Spekhardt had another breakaway chance but hit the post.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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