PORTLAND — Tim Rovnak is the kind of soccer player who never wants to slow down, which is a good thing for Portland High.
Rovnak was in high gear Tuesday night, scoring three goals to lead the Bulldogs to a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory against Cheverus in a Southern Maine Activities Association boys’ soccer game at Fitzpatrick Stadium.
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Rovnak saved his best and most important display of speed and agility for late in overtime, making a long run and sending home the winner with 41.6 seconds remaining.
“Brett (O’Kelly) just crossed it to me from the defensive end and I was lucky enough to get around the defender and finish,” Rovnak said.
The goal covered the length of the field and lifted the Bulldogs to 6-1-1 on the season.
“He never stops,” said Portland Coach Rocco Frenzelli. “He’s got gear after gear after gear, and just when you think he’s done what he can do, he steps it up another notch.
“When Brett put the ball on Timmy’s foot and Timmy turned the corner, I mean, you want to think good things when Rovnak gets his foot on the ball because he’s done it for us time in and time out.
“This was no different.”
Rovnak’s first two goals of the game, which put the Bulldogs up 2-0 before the game was 15 minutes old, also were the product of speed.
His first came nine minutes in when Ben Day sent a long bouncing ball toward the Cheverus goal. Keeper Charlie Mull raced out but Rovnak beat him with a leaping header that propelled the bounding ball into the open net.
Five minutes later Rovnak moved in on the Cheverus defense, disrupted their ball control and made a sliding play to redirect the ball to the back of the net to give Portland a 2-0 lead.
The Stags (5-2) weren’t deterred. They stuck to their game plan and scored two quick goals before the end of the half to tie the game. The goals, scored 1:22 apart on corner kicks, were both started by Sterling Weatherbie and finished by Nick Melville. The first was kicked to the front, where Melville bodied it past Bulldogs keeper Chip Weber. The second was a perfectly played header by Melville that tied the game.
“I thought we were a little sluggish at first and made a couple of mental errors in the back, but we’re young in the back with two freshmen and a sophomore in goal,” said Cheverus Coach Bill LeBlanc.
“Once we calmed down I thought we competed for the next 60 minutes and our resiliency was great.”
Both teams pushed for the go-ahead goal in the second half without success, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.
The Bulldogs were awarded a free kick from 25 yards with just 6.7 seconds remaining in regulation. O’Kelly took the shot that was easily handled by Mull just as the buzzer sounded.
“I don’t think I can go through many more of those,” said Frenzelli, who is in his 37th year as coach. “Obviously a great game played between two excellent teams.
“The two goals early felt good but you obviously know that a team like Cheverus is going to come back on you and they did. We just asked the boys in the second half to show us another gear and to keep working hard. After the first overtime that’s when I said to the guys that I thought we had another gear left and let’s see what can happen.”
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