LEWISTON — In a playoff-like atmosphere, Edward Little pulled off an upset against Lewiston on Tuesday in the final game of the boys soccer regular season.
Ben Cole scored three goals and Dayow Daud added two in the Red Eddies’ 5-3 victory over the Blue Devils at Don Roux Field.
“I love that man,” Daud said of Cole. “It’s an incredible opportunity to play with him and he’s a good striker. He does everything well.”
Tegra Mbele netted all three of Lewiston’s goals.
The Red Eddies (10-4) head into the postseason having won 11 of their final 12 matches. The loss ends the Blue Devils’ 11-game unbeaten streak. Lewiston will be the top seed in the Class A North tournament, while Edward Little is the fifth seed.
Daud said both teams played like it was a playoff contest.
“It was an intense game for sure,” Daud said. “When you come down to Lewiston, it’s not going to be an easy one. We were winning 5-1 and they got two back. They don’t stop — those guys are some dogs.”
Lewiston coach Dan Gish said errors in the first 40 minutes cost the Blue Devils.
“Defensive mistakes in the first half put us on our heels a little bit, but we had opportunities and we didn’t finish,” Gish said. “We didn’t give up when it was 5-1 — we made it 5-3. We started to put the pressure on and we had some really good chances; their keeper came up big for them.”
A wide-open first half started in the ninth minute when Mustafa Hassan of Lewiston booted a free kick that bounced around inside the 18-yard box before Mbele shot the ball past Edward Little goalie Eli St. Laurent for a 1-0 advantage.
St. Laurent stopped Jacinto Mavinga’s opportunity two minutes later.
Daud scored his first goal of the opening half when he put home a Thiago Linhares pass to tie the game in the 18th minute.
“It was a different lineup than what we were expecting,” Edward Little coach Max Thompson said. “I knew putting Dayow and Ben together had the potential to work, and it did. Those boys played well together.”
Gish said Lewiston had four players sit to start the game because of the amount of yellow cards they had.
Cole continued his offensive prowess for the Red Eddies when he drilled a shot from 10 yards out for a 2-1 advantage in the 21st minute.
After a Lewiston foul in the 32nd minute, Daud notched his second tally of the game with a 25-yard direct kick that sailed under the center of the crossbar.
“They were covering near post, so I couldn’t go there,” Daud said. “I had to go far post or in the middle. I just had to choose a spot and just hit it.”
Edward Little carried the momentum into the second half and extended its lead when Breccan Albert slipped a pass to Cole inside the 6-yard box and Cole scored to make it 4-1.
Cole later was knocked down in the 18-yard box while taking a shot, and on the ensuing penalty kick he stretched Edward Little’s lead to 5-1.
Thompson took out Daud and defender Gustavo Sanatos because of their yellow card total for the regular season.
“Once we got that lead, I took out both Dayow and Gustavo; they both had two cards and we couldn’t afford to lose them for the playoffs,” Thompson said. “The game changed a lot without those two players in there. They are as valuable as anybody on that field.”
The Blue Devils began to ramp up the pressure on St. Laurent about 15 minutes into the second half, but St. Laurent stopped Nasip Abdi at point-blank range and made a diving stop two minutes later.
“He hasn’t played much goal this season, which has been tricky for us to adjust,” Thompson said of St. Laurent. “We just got him back last week. There aren’t many players like him. You can go across the state and there are some good goalies in our conference, but I don’t think anybody is quite like him.”
Mbele got behind an Edward Little defender in the 18th minute and his rising shot went into the goal and cut the deficit to 5-2.
After Mechi Mbele missed a 30-yard shot in the 30th minute, Tegra Mbele’s long blast a minute later found the back of the net to put Lewiston within two goals.
“He’s a playmaker,” Gish said of Tegra Mbele. “But, you put three goals on Eli, that’s good. And we almost put four and five. I thought we outplayed them in the last 20 minutes.”
The Blue Devils had a few chances to cut into the deficit, but Abdimalik Nur’s line drive boot went wide of the cage, and Mavinga missed with an open net after St. Laurent misplayed the ball in the 18-yard box in the 36th minute.
“I think we finished on a good note,” Gish said. “We know we can come back and we can score. If we clean up the finishing part, we can do it.”
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