TOPSHAM

It just didn’t look like the Eagles were going to score. The Mt. Ararat High School boys varsity soccer team controlled most of the ball in Tuesday’s “Battle of the Bridge” rivalry match with Brunswick, but every shot the Eagles took seemed to miss the frame or get snatched out of the air.

Every shot except the last one.

Off the tap in overtime, the hosts took the ball and moved into Brunswick territory like they’d done all night. Only this time, James Hutchinson locked on to the target. After getting into space at the top of the box, the senior midfielder eyed a pass from Travis Nadeau — the ball bounced shortly off the grass and Hutchinson unloaded a screaming half-volley into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal. The net rippled and the Eagles’ only shot on frame turned into a 1-0 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference win.

“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Hutchinson said. “ We come into this game every year knowing it’s going to be our toughest game. We want to win at home. It’s the best feeling. In front of all our fans, we had a huge crowd tonight. Couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

“It’s huge,” Mt. Ararat coach Jack Rioux said. “ You want to beat your rivals. This is the game they talk about. As much as we try and focus ‘ one game at a time, one game at a time,’ they want to beat Brunswick. And Brunswick wants to beat us. There’s no if ’s, and’s or but’s about that.”

Despite less of the ball, it was Brunswick ( 0- 2- 2) that looked closer to grabbing a winner. In perhaps the Dragons’ best chance of the match, a slippery run from senior Christian Glover ended with a dangerous shot that was saved by Mt. Ararat (3-1) keeper Gavin Patterson. Again in 60th minute, a header from Glover was narrowly cleared off the line.

The Eagles, who missed on all eight of their shots prior to the winner, never got so close.

“I honestly didn’t think I was going to get it,” Hutchinson said of the final strike. “ Travis ( Nadeau) does what he does — he beat a defender one-on-one, slid it across, the ball came down to me and I just put my head down and hit it. Went in. Greatest feeling.”

“ I was just happy we finally put a shot on the goal,” Rioux said. “We had plenty go over, go wide, right at the keeper. Finally we talked about it — put it on the frame, good things are going to happen. I think it was a 50-50 ball in the box, we won the knockdown and James (Hutchinson) hit a shot. Not much I can say about the shot — it was a rocket, low, right on the frame.”

Protecting the goal

Brunswick goalkeeper Josh Dorr, who played a vital role in keeping the Eagles scoreless in regulation, laid out for Hutchinson’s strike but came up just short. On multiple sequences, a Mt. Ararat corner or long throw was hauled in by Dorr before danger took form. In one critical free kick in the final minute of regulation, a whipped-in ball from the side of the box fell right into his grasp.

The hosts were playing their game, but struggled to get over the last hurdle.

“They have a very good goalie who knows when to come out,” Rioux said of Dorr. “He’d come out, gobble up a lot of things. Their defense is very solid, tough to unlock, so we need to possess it, pull them out and play in there. When we did that for stretches of the game, I thought we played really well.”

On the other side, Patterson was tested on a few waves of pressure from the Dragons, and was bailed out on Glover’s header off a corner. But for Brunswick coach Mark Roma’s side, still looking for it’s first win of the season, they only count if they go in.

“We’re past the point of moral victories. At this point, we need a result,” Roma said. “I told them nothing else from here on out is really going to matter.”

Brunswick finished with six total shots to Mt. Ararat’s nine, with both of Glover’s near-finishes coming in the first half. Dorr and Glover are two senior captains that Roma will be looking to for the rest of the season.

It can’t get much tougher than Tuesday night.

“I told him they had a choice,” Roma said. “This can make you harder, you can use this as fuel and you can grow, or you can duck your head and start making excuses and look for the end of the season. I could look at my upperclassmen and I kind of know which way they’re going. They’re not happy, understandably. I guess it’s how you finish. We’ve got to get stronger and harder.”

Mt. Ararat 1, Brunswick 0

At Mt. Ararat High School

	Brunswick	—	0	0	0	—	0
Mt.	Ararat	—	0	0	1	—	1

Goal — (MtA) James Hutchinson. Assist — (MtA) Travis Nadeau. Shots — Mt. Ararat 9, Brunswick 6. Saves — (MtA) Gavin Patterson 2. Corner kicks — Mt. Ararat 4, Brunswick 3. Records — Mt. Ararat 3-1, Brunswick 0-2-2. Up next for the Dragons — Thursday at home against Oxford Hills, 3:30. Up next for the Eagles — Friday at Skowhegan, 3:30 p.m