OAKLAND — Each time the Messalonskee girls’ soccer team finds the back of the net at home, the 1990s hip-hop number “U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer blares over the public address system.
It happened so often Thursday that visiting Edward Little probably heard it in their collective ears all the way home.
The Eagles found their touch in the second half, prying open a packed box to score four times en route to a 5-0 win over Edward Little in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A matchup. It was Messalonskee’s fourth straight win after a season-opening loss to Camden Hills.
The Eagles (4-1-0) have outscored the opposition 26-1 during the four-match unbeaten run, posting clean sheets in three of the four contests.
“We’re working together and our midfield is connecting us better,” said senior Caitlin Parks, who had a goal and set up two others against Edward Little (0-3-2) with her work rate in the attacking third. “Our coach has really disciplined us. Last year was unorganized, and our team wasn’t jelling together. We played as an offense and a defense. Now, we’re playing together.”
Thursday was a master’s class in how not to allow the opposition to score. By dominating the possession game, Messalonskee rarely — in fact, only three times in the entire first half — allowed the Eddies the ball outside their own half of the pitch.
Edward Little managed only three shot attempts for the game, all three coming off free kicks from distance.
“It’s mostly about patience and not trying to force things and rush things toward the goal,” Parks said of the team’s ability to keep Edward Little trapped on its own side of midfield. “Most teams try to push it straight to goal every time they get it. I think our team’s gotten a lot better at keeping the ball and focusing on not losing it. As the (second) half went on, our patience got better and better, and we could find holes quicker and our passes got sharper.”
Edward Little entered the day hoping to succeed at defending out of a 4-5-1 formation with a holding midfielder, and the Eddies were just fine doing that through 40 minutes. Freshman Natalie Tracy’s goal in the 23rd minute was the only tally of the first half for Messalonskee, and even that came after a bit of miscommunication on the Eddies’ back end allowed her to pick the ball cleanly off Edward Little goalkeeper Allie Annear inside the six-yard box for an easy goal.
“I felt like our strength right now with me being a new coach, I’ve worked on defense a lot and I wanted to put a focus on that today,” Edward Little coach Miles Bisher said. “I wanted to really focus on staying compact and not giving them opportunities, and it worked for a while. I think we were frustrating them, and that was by design.
“Packing it in works — until it doesn’t.”
As a depleted bench and fatigue started to break down the Eddies in the second half, so, too, did Messalonskee’s attack.
Parks cut a ball back along the right end line to sophomore Chloe Sisson for Sisson’s goal in the 44th minute, and Parks’ carbon-copy move fed senior Anika Elias for a 3-0 lead in the 73rd minute.
Parks herself finished one off from that spot three minutes later, and the Eagles ended the onslaught with an own goal off an Edward Little defender two minutes from full time.
“We knew they had to come to us if they wanted to at least tie the game,” Messalonskee first-year head coach Chris Delgiudice said. “I just told the girls to be patient, keep moving the ball, keep playing the way you are and you’re going to find a hole.”
Each time the Eagles did, MC Hammer fired up again and Messalonskee was on its way to the convincing decision.
“I’m very happy with where we’re at right now,” Delgiudice said. “I know last year this team struggled to put the ball in the net, and right now we’re putting the ball in the net consistently. It’s not just one of us. … We’re right on where we want to be.”
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