Mt. Blue midfielder Emma White (14) looks to drive the ball past Brunswick’s Isabella Banks during a KVAC girls’ soccer game at Brunswick on Thursday. Banks had two assists as the host Dragons rolled to 6-0 win. (Bob Conn/Brunswick Times Record)
BRUNSWICK — In her mind, Brunswick senior striker Anna Kousky envisioned the way the start of the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference season was going to go.
Kousky scored five goals, leading the Dragons to a 6-0 victory over Mt. Blue on Thursday in the girls’ soccer opener for both teams.
She admitted afterwards, five goals was something that wasn’t in even her best of dreams.
“Honestly, I did not see that one coming, and they all came off of assists, which bodes well for the season,” said Kousky, who scored the first five goals. “We passed good, moved the ball well, and that will help as we move forward.”
“It was nice to get a couple of early goals, and it settled us down,” Brunswick (1-0) coach Martyn Davison said. “We got better as the game went on, we possessed the ball. Our passing and possession was phenomenal.”
The offense came early for the hosts, as Kousky finished a lead pass from Charlotte MacMillan for a 1-0 lead just 5:14 into the game. Kousky made it 2-0 as midfielder Isabella Banks led the speedy forward, who sprinted past a pair of Mt. Blue defenders before depositing a shot past diving Cougar goaltender Mackenzie Libby.
“I knew coming in they were going to be a good team, only having lost Maeve Arthur, and they spanked us pretty good last year (9-1), but I thought the possession was as much against us as it was in that game last year,” said Mt. Blue coach Fred Conlogue, whose Cougars host Oxford Hills on Tuesday.
Just past the midway point of the opening frame, Kousky managed to get her toe on an Emily Larochelle cross to complete the hat trick, and the senior made it a 4-0 halftime score as Banks picked up her second helper with 15:05 remaining.
“I thought their striker (Kousky) just had a phenomenal game. We didn’t have an answer for her. Just hard to stop here,” Conlogue said.
Davison was pleased with his midfield (Emma Banks, MacMillan, Isabella Banks), which did a solid job in keeping Mt. Blue pinned inside its defensive zone for long stretches of time, leading to scoring opportunities.
“Anna doesn’t score unless we make the opportunities for her, and the midfield played some lovely through balls. And, Anna did the job in finishing. We kept the ball and more opportunities came,” said Davison, whose Dragons host Edward Little on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
In the second half, Brunswick worked the ball around, outshooting the Cougars, 14-1, and ended the contest with 22 shots on frame. Kousky’s final goal, from Mia DiSantis, came with 27:54 remaining before Rian Sachs finished off a pass from Marley Groat seven minutes later for the game’s final tally.
Libby made several acrobatic saves, stopping Groat from point-blank range, then diving to turn away Emma Banks. Isabella Banks launched a free kick off the post midway through the second half. Libby finished with 15 saves.
“(Mackenzie) had some good saves and had a good head on her shoulders that second half,” said Conlogue, who feels his team has plenty of time to recover from the opening loss. “We were good enough to make the playoffs last year, but you have to win enough games to get there. When you play the good teams, sometimes you take a licking and learn from it.”
Mt. Blue (0-1) fired three shots on goal, all of which were stopped by Brunswick freshman netminder Aisley Snell in her first varsity victory. Dragon defenders Mikaela Aschbrenner, Sachs and Larochelle helped cut the field in half.
Mt. Blue’s Madison Hambrick (27) runs toward the ball while Brunswick’s Charlotte MacMillan looks on. The Cougars fells to the Dragons, 6-0, at Brunswick on Thusday. (Bob Conn/Brunswick Times Record)
Mt. Blue girls’ soccer team sings the National Anthem while the Brunswick football team behind the scoreboard listens. Both soccer teams, Mt. Blue and Brunswick, sang the song together after the recording failed. Some fans at Thursday’s also joined in. (Tony Blasi/Sun Journal)
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