Caleb Abbott saw Spruce Mountain keeper Dustin Jones bobble the ball, and the Freeport High School sophomore wasted little time closing in, flicking the ball past Jones and into the cage.

Jones and the rest of the Falcons then wasted little time in turning that one goal into an avalanche of scoring, pushing their lead to five by halftime and cruising to a 7-0 victory in the teams’ Western Class B preliminary round boys soccer contest Monday.

“Scoring is so hard to do in this game, and for us to score early and come in at halftime with a big lead, that was huge,” Freeport coach Joe Heathco said. “When we had the opportunities late in that half, and it was just bang, bang, bang, it takes the air out of the game.”

Abbott’s first goal — with 9:53 to play — broke open what had been a tight, 1-0 contest for the better part of the first half. His second, just 2:28 later, put the game effectively out of reach.

Connor Dietrich added yet another 22 seconds later, and Landon Easler capped the late-half flurry with the Falcons’ fifth with 2:10 to play in the half.

“I tried to make a few adjustments here and there,” Spruce Mountain coach Bill Acritelli said. “We started in a 4-3-3 (defense), then in the middle of the half I went to a 4-4-2. We made a few more adjustments at halftime, put in a stopper, put in a sweeper and they played better in the second half, but you play Class C teams all year and you go to Class B soccer and it’s a totally different tier.”

Freeport, 3-9-2 during the regular season, scored only 15 goals in those 14 games before unleashing seven Monday. And, four of the seven for the Falcons were off the feet of sophomores or freshmen.

“If you look at the goal-scorers, there’s a bunch of sophomores in there,” Heathco said. “The growth of the sophomores is our growth as a team. That’s a big part of our club. We have a good group of seniors, we only have a couple of juniors, and for us to be successful we need the younger guys to step up.”

And while Freeport continued to apply pressure up front, the defense held Spruce Mountain at bay through the midfield, allowing no shots in the opening half. By game’s end, Freeport keeper Brendan Qualls — another sophomore — needed to make just two saves on four shots.

“They’re definitely stingy, there’s no doubt about that,” Acritelli said. “They have a good defense. And we just didn’t have it today. There’s not much you can do.”

Dietrich and Callum Gould capped the scoring for Freeport late in the second half after Spruce Mountain held the Falcons off the board for much of the time while generating its best scoring chances of the game.

The No. 10 Falcons advance to face second-seeded Maranacook in the Western Class B quarterfinal round Wednesday, pitting Freeport against another opponent from another conference, the KVAC, against which it does not play during the regular season.

“It’s a small state. The coaches, we know each other and we see each other,” Heathco said. “We know they’re going to be tough. They’re well-coached. (Maranacook coach Don) Beckwith does a good job, they’re going to be strong, they’re going to be aggressive and we’re going to have to play really well.”

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