TOPSHAM — Some might say packing in the defense and simply clearing the ball out of danger is a boring brand of soccer.
For more than 40 minutes, Mt. Ararat’s defensive efforts against two-time defending State Class A boys high school soccer champion Lewiston was nearly perfect and far from boring for the Eagles.
But the talented Blue Devils figured things out in the second half, then held off the hard-charging Eagles for a 2-1 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference win on Tuesday at Riverside Field.
Lewiston improved to 8-0, while Mt. Ararat fell to 4-4. However, as Blue Devils coach Mike McGraw said, it is never easy when his Blue Devils face Jack Rioux’s Eagles.
“It was a tactical nightmare for me, but I thought Mt. Ararat did exactly what they had to do,” said McCraw, whose Blue Devils host rival Edward Little on Thursday. “Coach Rioux did a real nice job of putting the right pieces together.”
Lewiston had its chances in the first half, outshooting Mt. Ararat by a 6-1 count. But, most of those chances came from distance and each were handled easily by senior goaltender James Singleton.
“They executed the gameplan perfectly,” said Rioux. “We knew that we had to mark Bilal (Hersi), and we were OK with them shooting from 20, 25–yards out with James back there. It worked for 40 minutes.”
“We planned on standing them up and making sure they didn’t get by us. The first half we were pretty defensive,” added Mt. Ararat junior midfielder Jonah Zell.
In the second half, Lewiston began chipping the ball high towards the Mt. Ararat end of the field, with the Blue Devils using their height advantage to win several passes. The pressure led to the game’s first goal as Hersi managed to slip away from an Eagles defender and rip a shot past a diving Singleton for a 1-0 lead 4:40 in the frame.
“We had to overcome their defense, and at halftime we as coaches got together and made the adjustments that we needed to make,” said McGraw. “Once we got the goal, we played more relaxed.”
Lewiston kept coming, with Hersi finding Abdirahman Daud for a 2-0 Blue Devils lead. Daud’s low shot was placed perfectly inside the left post with 24:31 remaining.
Mt. Ararat strikes back
It didn’t take long for the Eagles to answer. Zell made a solid run down the middle of the field, leading to confusion in the Blue Devil end. Eli Ouellette sent a shot high off the hands of Lewiston goaltender Michael Belleau (four saves), with the rebound headed into the net by freshman Zander Kirk just 25 seconds after Daud’s goal.
“Jonah had one heck of a run down the center of the field, and we got that goal and got that energy while still playing solid defense,” Rioux said. “We were able to get our chances and a couple of those chances almost paid off.”
“Up two goals against Mt. Ararat is dangerous,” McGraw said. “They scored a nice goal and we broke our concentration, something that happens. The momentum Mt. Ararat got on transition put a lot of pressure on our defense, and we have to refocus on how our midfielders get back and have that sense of energy. We have faced a lot of different ways to defend us. We hung tough and showed resilience.”
Mt. Ararat had two free kicks from just outside the Lewiston penalty area down the stretch, with Lewiston defenders Abdullahi Abdullahi and Moubarek Abdourahman clearing the ball out of danger.
“We pushed hard after we scored and really got some momentum,” said Zell. “We knew we were facing a hard opponent, and we have a history with Lewiston. We wanted to play as hard as we could.”
The effort against Lewiston came four days after an uninspiring loss to Edward Little (2-0) at Auburn. Rioux was pleased that his team battled back.
“I hope this performance shows the guys that we can do so much more and that they believe going forward,” said Rioux, whose Eagles travel to Bangor on Thursday at 6 p.m. “We lost a lot from last year. Friday, we didn’t show up to play. Today, I was nervous because I didn’t know what we would have. But we were ready.”
Lewiston finished with a 15-5 shot advantage and a 3-1 edge in corner kicks. Singleton made 13 saves.
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