WATERVILLE — The Mount Desert Island boys soccer team was a one-game winner during the regular season.
It sure didn’t look that way in the first test of the postseason.
Freshman Corin Baker had a goal and two slick assists, and the ninth-seeded Trojans used a first-half burst of three goals in under 10 minutes to defeat No. 8 Waterville 3-0 in the preliminary round of the Class B North playoffs Friday afternoon.
“We were dealt some uneven hands, just a lot of injury, sicknesses, missing players, different rosters,” said senior forward Ieuan Howell, who along with Cole Watson had the other goals for MDI (2-8-3). “We just knew that anything’s possible. We were talking about how every team in the state of Maine right now is 0-0. It feels nice to be 1-0 now.”
The Purple Panthers finished 4-10-1, and though they generated chances in an effort to get back into the game, they were thwarted by their season-long struggle of finishing those opportunities.
“I think the game was kind of representative of how the season (went),” Waterville coach Dakota Gendreau said. “This team was capable of playing with anybody. In our last game prior to playoffs, we were with Winslow, competitive from start to finish. … (But) it kind of matches the season where there’s one moment where bounces don’t go your way, they cash in on their opportunities and we just came up a little short on ours.”
The game was evenly played for the first 20 minutes — Waterville’s Garrett Gendreau even had a goal negated by an offside call in the eighth minute — but MDI broke through in the 24th minute when Baker played a great through ball up to a sprinting Howell, who was alone and buried the shot with 16:29 to go in the half.
“It was great. It was a fun goal to score,” Howell said. “It’s one of those ones that sometimes I can think too much about. But with the through ball, and knowing where it was, it was one of those things where almost your brain just blacks out. You just hit it.”
Waterville goalie Aiden Tavares (99) makes a punch save on a corner kick over Mount Desert Island’s Corin Baker during a Class B North prelim game Friday at Webber Field in Waterville. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
Not even two minutes later, Baker had the ball on his foot to the right of the box and slipped a nice pass up to the right side of the box to Watson, who booted a shot into the net for a 2-0 lead with 14:52 remaining.
“All the players in those moments were making great runs,” Baker said. “I felt like it was more them than me.”
Baker got to finish the job himself with 6:43 to go in the half, drilling a shot from the back off the box that hit off the diving keeper’s hands and went in for a 3-0 advantage.
“(The run) was really nice, especially after really not having a moment like that during the season,” Baker said. “It was pretty crazy.”
A team that had trouble scoring all season long now found itself in a deep hole, but Coach Gendreau kept his team calm at halftime.
“It’s just trying to go forward,” he said. “All you’ve got to do is just think ‘Get the next one, go forward.’ Once you get one, then try for two. The boys know that we can generate opportunities.”
And Waterville did. Garrett Gendreau and Keagan Tavares had second-half tries that just skidded left of the net, and on the Panthers’ best chance, Noah Wilson arced a perfect shot in the 63rd minute that was set to come down just under the crossbar, but MDI keeper Quentin Pileggi made a leaping save to bump it back harmlessly over the goal.
“The persistence was there, and it’s always been there with this team,” Coach Gendreau said. “Something about that offensive box has always been a jinx for us.”
Waterville’s chances were limited, however, by the Trojans own second-half pressure. MDI didn’t rest on its lead, continuing to push for more goals and nearly getting one in the 58th minute when D’Angelo Reid touched the ball past a defender, planted and drilled a shot that slammed off the crossbar.
It was a spirited way to end the game for a team that, despite its record, has plenty of confidence about it.
“The last thing we say in our huddle before we take the field is ‘Play for each other,'” Howell said. “It’s not ‘Me, me, me,’ it’s ‘Us, us us.'”
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