AUBURN — Mohamed Adow’s teammates are always on the look out for him on the field — especially when the Edward Little senior striker is lurking near the net.
Adow made himself available, booting in all three goals for the undefeated Red Eddies, who didn’t flinch under Bangor’s constant pressure and slipped away with a 3-0 Class A North boys soccer victory on Tuesday.
Adow’s output on offense is no surprise to Edward Little coach Max Thompson.
“I hate to say it, but sometimes you kind of get used to it,” Thompson said. “He makes a lot of great decisions. He has a bit of an unorthodox approach to the way he plays — and he is in a lot of good spots.
“Right now, guys are finding him. Right now, there is a lot of good awareness with the way we are playing offense. It’s enjoyable to see those kids really buying into good movement, good awareness. It is fun right now to coach.”
Adow’s first goal came 8:19 into the in the first half after he took a feed from sophomore midfielder Abdihakim “Dayow” Daud. Adow delivered his second goal with assistance from Campbell Cassidy with 2:50 left in the first half.
“I have been finishing my chances. (My midfield) is setting me up pretty nicely, and I am grateful for that,” Adow said. “We didn’t have enough chances (to score). I feel like we could have generated more shots and more chances. I don’t think we took enough shots on the keeper, but the chances we had we finished up and moved the ball really well. The defense did a really good job.”
The Red Eddies (11-0-1) took that 2-0 lead into halftime and topped it off with another goal from Adow early in the second half. From there, Edward Little kept the Rams at bay.
“I thought defensively, we communicated really well,” Thompson said. “They seem to have a lot of confidence with the way that they were playing. We’ve played against a lot of teams that have really put a lot of pressure on us. I thought the boys were calm. They were able to move the ball.
“They had a lot of poise, which I think can start to erode as you try to protect leads and things like that. But they played with a lot of confidence, so it was nice.”
Edward Little junior goalie Eli St. Laurent made seven saves in net to preserve the win.
“Eli is incredible,” Thompson said. “I haven’t seen anybody that plays at the level that he is playing at. He is phenomenal.”
Bangor (4-3-3) made Edward Little work hard on both ends of the field. Coach Don Erb said the Rams have done that against a few of A North’s top teams, but they haven’t been able to pull off victories in those games.
“I thought in the first half, we were down 2-zip, and I thought we had at least 50 percent possession,” Erb said. “We possessed the ball well. We’ve just been having trouble getting that final third (of possession).
“Lewiston, we were up 2-zip, (but) lost 5-2. Camden, we were up 1-0, lost 3-1. We are good and we are competing with teams, but we just can’t seem to get over the hump against a good team.”
Erb added that Adow’s scoring separated the two teams Tuesday.
“I think one of differences is (Edward Little) has an elite scorer, and that’s a big difference,” Erb said. “I thought it was a well-played game (with) two good teams. Maybe we will get a chance to play them again in the playoffs. Who knows?”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
