FALMOUTH — The Class A South boys’ soccer game between Marshwood and Falmouth included a couple of oddities Thursday night.
Marshwood, because of a rescheduled rainout, was playing for the second consecutive night, an unusual occurrence for high school soccer. Then a power outage that affected a section of Falmouth plunged the field into darkness less than a minute before the teams were to begin the second half, resulting in a further delay of 20 minutes.
But the one constant in Falmouth’s 3-0 victory remained a resilient defense that hasn’t allowed a goal since a season-opening loss to Cheverus.
Falmouth (5-1-1) has outscored opponents 18-0 since the Stags rallied from a deficit in the second half of that first game to earn a 2-1 victory.
“That first game, we made some young mistakes,” said Falmouth Coach Dave Halligan. “But we’re getting better each time out. I thought we played pretty well (Thursday night), probably our best first half all season.”
Gus Ford opened the scoring in the ninth minute when a cross from Joshua LeFevre bounced through the area in front and eluded a Marshwood defender, giving Ford an easy tap-in.
Half a dozen good chances later, Falmouth scored twice more in a 68-second flurry shortly before halftime.
A Ford header hit the right post and LeFevre booted the rebound off the crossbar and just over the goal line, although there was a delay before confirmation of the 2-0 score.
A minute later, Ben Greene caught another post and the ball rattled off a defender before Rion Dos Santos set up Niklas Hester to make it 3-0 with 2:08 left in the half.
“We had the ball on the front post,” Hester said. “It kind of bounced around, then it wound up on the back post where it was sitting, and I kicked it in.”
Marshwood (4-2-2) already was running on fumes, having beaten Windham 3-0 the previous night.
Standing around in the dark for an extra 20 minutes didn’t help the Hawks do much more against Falmouth in the second half, although Jack Parker’s redirected shot in the 63rd minute struck the crossbar and bounced away.
Falmouth goalkeeper Alvara Fuentes-Cantillana needed three saves for the shutout, with relief in the final two-plus minutes from Jackson Quinn.
Falmouth outshot Marshwood, 21-4. George McDonnell finished with 12 saves for the Hawks.
Falmouth had a scare in the second half when teammates Greene and Owen Mahoney collided while attempting a header. Both went down, with Greene’s forehead bloodied and requiring a visit to the hospital.
Mahoney is one of Falmouth’s back wall along with Macklin Williams, Seamus O’Brien, Joe Dye and Kyle Bouchard. O’Brien had gotten ill and left the premises after the first half, which meant Williams switched to sweeper.
“We’re just really communicative,” Williams said of the Falmouth defenders. “We make sure to stay on our men and we do a really good job of recovering.”
Marshwood Coach Ben Deschene said there are two factors that make Falmouth a force on defense.
“One is they don’t give you much room to move back there,” he said.
“But the bigger reason is the way they control the midfield with possession. They’re physical, they’re athletic and they’re smart.”
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or
Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
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