Tuesday, June 18, 2013
By DALE DUFF Special to the Press Herald
BANGOR - The Bangor and Brunswick girls' soccer teams battled on even terms for 80 minutes Friday, showing every step of the way how the top two teams in Eastern Maine Class A should play.
Brunswick ended the drama 1:22 into overtime, as Paige Tetu scored from 35 yards to give the Dragons a 2-1 win.
Brunswick (8-0) moved past Bangor (7-1) for the No. 1 spot in the Heal point standings and snapped a 25-game winning streak for the defending state champions.
"Obviously the shot was a good one, a little big lucky, but that's the way it goes sometimes," Brunswick Coach Martyn Davison said of the winning goal. "It was a great game, could have gone either way."
Bangor keeper Kristen Higgins went out to stop Tetu's long lob kick from the left side, but it squirted through her hands and then through her legs.
"I just heard everybody screaming at me to take (the shot) and I thought, why not, it's golden goal and why not go for it," said Tetu, a senior captain. "It feels so good to get that winning goal. It's the best feeling in the world."
Bangor took a 1-0 lead just seven minutes into the game. The Rams' leading scorer, Grace MacLean, connected from about 25 yards, beating Brunswick keeper Haley Murano to her left.
Despite falling behind early, the Dragons stayed with a defensive strategy, marking MacLean with multiple players. Brunswick's Anna Cowan had some scoring chances in the final 20 minutes of the first half, but the Rams did a great job blocking most of them.
Bangor had chances to expand the lead in the second half. MacLean kicked one over the crossbar on a breakaway, and a header off a corner kick went over the goal just a few minutes later.
Bangor Coach Joe Johnson knew those plays might come back to bite his team.
"We had a couple of golden opportunities to finish; sometimes they just don't go in," said Johnson. "When you miss the one's you should make, it's tough, especially in a hard-fought game like this one."
Cowan tied it with 11:54 left in regulation. Tetu lofted the ball from the midfield area to Cowan, who broke into the clear, deked right and shot left for the goal.
"(After) losing to them the past two years, this is a great redemption for us," said Tetu.
"It will give us a confidence boost, of course," said Davison, "but we know it's not a playoff game. We'll just try to keep getting better."
Bangor finished with 11 shots. Brunswick had 10.
"We've lost games like this before and have come back fine," said Bangor's Johnson.
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