Mt. Ararat High School goaltender Jon Roux and Edward Little netminder Llewellyn Jensen proved this season to be two of the best soccer goaltenders in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference. Each spearheaded a defense that allowed just 11 goals this season, with Jensen picking up seven shutouts and Roux helping the Eagles to six.

Head to head, the Eagles and Red Eddies played to a 0-0 double overtime stalemate Sept. 17, so Wednesday’s Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal between the two squads was likely to come down to which team received a good bounce or a perfect shot.

Think again.

Both offenses came out firing in the opening 20 minutes of Wednesday’s chilly match, with the fourth-seeded Eagles claiming a 3-2 early lead en route to a 4-2 edge by halftime.

Mt. Ararat went on to a 5-2 win and will head to No. 1 Hampden Academy (a 1-0 winner over eighth-seeded Mt. Blue) in an Eastern A semifinal on Saturday, while No. 5 EL finished 8-4-3.

“They were faster to the ball than us and they were there to put it in,” said Jensen, who had nine saves. “It was a crazy first half, with shots coming from our box and their box.”

“Their keeper is so good that what we worked on was getting endline and keeping the ball down, and we had a ton of chances,” said Mt. Ararat coach Rick Renaud, whose Eagles outshot the Red Eddies 19-5 and held a 12-0 edge in corner kicks. “They are getting it, and if we play like that, we are going to be a tough team to beat.”

“It was a last thing I expected, as we hung our hats on defense all year, struggling to generate offense, and we just made too many mistakes in the back,” said EL coach Matthew Andreasen. “We dug a trench, and we’re just not potent enough to dig ourselves out. In an Eastern Maine quarterfinal against a good team with a good coach like Rick Renaud, you just can’t make mistakes like that. They didn’t have to work very hard for their goals in the first half.

“Their kids will give them everything they have, push numbers forward, run as hard as they can at you and put pressure on your backline, and unfortunately that pressure was too much for us to control tonight,” added Andreasen. “They were the bullies and we were the victims tonight.”

The goals came quick in the first half. Mt. Ararat’s Griffin Stockford booted in a pass from Justin Pierce 8:58 in, and less than two minutes later, Stockford’s pass bounced off of teammate Robbie Small and spun past the dive of Jensen for a 2-0 Eagles lead.

The Red Eddies struck for a goal just over one minute later as Jared Plourde scored off a setup from Luke Sterling, but Mt. Ararat came right back two minutes later on Stockford’s second goal, another redirection, this time off a cross from Isaac Bradshaw.

“We just tried to finish our chances and put them in a tough spot,” said Small, who had two goals. “We knew going to the goal and getting those tough goals were going to be the difference and tonight they were.”

“We got off to a fast start, and after our defense struggled a little we put it all together and got the win,” said Stockford. “We practiced all week going to the goal and just trying to get something on the ball. We had three goals like that tonight.”

EL made it a one-goal game again when Sterling rocketed a low shot past Roux at 20:41, but Mt. Ararat claimed a two-goal edge for a third time with 9:20 left until halftime on a Joe Thomas goal, with Chris Pepin earning an assist.

In the second half, Mt. Ararat’s defense of Eric Knight, Pepin, Trevor Mayo and Dan Pelletier cut the field in half, pinning the Red Eddies on their side of the field, and Small completed the scoring with a breakaway goal with 7:58 left.

“Our shape wasn’t real good in the first half, but the second half we started to talk better and our shape was better, keeping them from getting any real good chances in the second half,” said Renaud.

Andreasen gathered his team one last time after the final horn.

“You want to let the kids down lightly, but at the same time you’re disappointed,” said Andreasen. “They gave me a lot this year. As a whole, we had a good season. We were the overachievers in our conference. In the preseason we didn’t look good, and I thought it would be a struggle to qualify top nine to be frank.”

No. 4 Mt. Ararat 5, No. 5 Edward Little 2

Eastern Maine Class A Boys Quarterfinal, At Topsham
Edward Little — 2 0 — 2
Mt. Ararat — 4 1 — 5
Goals — (EL) Jared Plourde, Luke
Sterling; (MA) Griffin Stockford 2,
Robbie Small 2, Joe Thomas.
Assists — (EL) Luke Sterling; (MA)
Justin Pierce, Griffin Stockford, Isaac
Bradshaw 2, Chris Pepin.
Shots — Mt. Ararat 19, Edward Little
5.
Saves — (EL) Llewellyn Jensen 9;
(MA) Jon Roux 1, Mason Griffin 0.
Corner kicks — Mt. Ararat 12,
Edward Little 0.
Records — Mt. Ararat 10-3-2,
Edward Little 8-4-3.
Up next for Mt. Ararat — Against No.
1 Hampden Academy in the Eastern A
semifinals, time TBA.