LEWISTON — A stout Bangor defense held Lewiston star senior striker Bilal Hersi in check in the first half of Friday’s KVAC Class A North boys soccer clash, but Hersi found a way to end the scoreless stalemate in the second half of a 3-0 Blue Devils win at Don Roux Field.
“Mentally, I knew that I had to score in the second half,” Hersi said. “That’s my job for this team. I have to create goals, I have to do anything possible to make my team win.”
Hersi finally broke through 2:42 into the second half. He took a feed from his defense just inside the Bangor (0-3) end, then took on the Rams defense before finding an opening and freezing Bangor goalie Austin Conway with a low roller from the top of the box.
“On that first goal the defender didn’t know whether to mark him or watch for Suab (Nur), and so in their hesitant indecision (Bilal) slid through a beauty, which was a spectacular goal of importance and poise,” Lewiston coach Mike McGraw said.
“(Hersi) is a really great player, and he’s joined by a lot of other really good players, so it’s hard to even just focus on one guy,” Bangor coach Garth Berenyi said. “But he’s not a guy you want to give an open-field ball to and then attack with speed.”
Hersi later dished out to Abdirahman Daud a little less than 10 minutes into the second frame. Hersi threw in to Nur, who passed to Abdilahi Abdi, who gave it back to Hersi, who then fired in from the left corner to Daud, whose one-timer blew past Conway.
Daud, a senior, added a second goal with 14 minutes left, taking a feed from Nur and curling an open shot past Conway.
“Abdirahman, this year, we’re expecting big things from him. And I’m not that surprised that he got two goals today because he’s been working hard, he’s been doing well, and this is his year,” Hersi said. “This is his year to shine, and this is his year to basically show everyone what he has now.”
Bangor got on the board with just under four minutes left, with Andrew Munroe’s strike from 20 yards out ending the shutout.
“I like the fact that he scored, and I liked even better that he got up when he went down. Got up and he took that shot, instead of just staying down,” Berenyi said.
It took Lewiston (3-0) until late in the first half to record the game’s first shot on goal, but it ended up being a big stop for Bangor. Conway point-blank stopped Suab Nur’s drive from the left with 12:30 left before halftime.
Conway stopped two more shots in the final 90 seconds, first on Leandro Auger’s volley that bounced high on the keeper, then another off a deflection that Conway secured on the ground.
The Rams were held without a shot on frame in the first half, but did have two corner kicks to work with.
Bangor’s offense woke up after falling behind 1-0. The Rams’ first shot on goal came soon after Hersi’s goal, a free kick from just inside the Bangor end that glanced off a Lewiston defender at the top of the box and went right to Blue Devils goalie Michael Belleau, who was staring into the sun.
Daud had to make a goal-line stop on a Bangor corner kick that was redirected from Jacob Munroe’s initial take, and Belleau had to make one of his own after a high bouncer from midfield went over his head.
Belleau finished with two saves, while Conway stopped six shots.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
