EASTON, Maine — Some close setbacks early in this soccer season have had Easton High School boys coach Ryan Shaw scratching his head a bit.
The offense he had been itching for finally came to fruition Tuesday afternoon against Limestone/Maine School of Science and Mathematics.
The Bears dominated in the offensive end, as senior Corey White scored twice in the first three minutes and sophomore Reid Clark recorded a hat trick to send the hosts to a 7-1 victory at the boys field.
White, a quick midfielder, along with sophomore forward Holden Turner, set the tone right off the bat, as Turner fed White with a perfect through-ball down the middle which White slammed home only 2:41 into the match.
That duo connected 1:05 later, this time with Turner sending the ball to White across the penalty area and he put it into the right goalpost.
The Bears took advantage of their skills and quickness, keeping the ball along the flanks and feeding their attackers in the midfield.
“I’ve been doing that a lot, its how we score most of our goals,” said White, one of four seniors on Shaw’s 13-man roster.
Clark scored the first of his three goals midway through the first half, knocking in a perfect cross from Devyn Gray.
While Easton was scoring at will, its backs did a solid job of protecting sophomore keeper Cody Tompkins, using a flat-back scheme to help neutralize the Eagles’ attackers.
“Coach just wanted us to attack the ball and not let them get many shots, so we said whenever they get to a certain point just get the ball and send it back up,” said Fuller, a senior back.
That’s how Easton generated many of its scoring chances, as the Bears’ backs were effective in clearing the ball up to their outside midfielders and forwards.
“We got the ball out wide, we’ve got some really quick guys up front and we were able to open up and get some through balls right to the keeper,” White said.
Turner gave Easton a 4-0 advantage early in the second half with the first of his two goals, accepting a pass from Clark, outworking a Limestone defender along the right side and curling a high, arching shot inside the left post.
White assisted on Turner’s second goal 8:40 into the half while Turner scored the Bears’ final two goals, with Turner and Caleb Bomar earning assists, respectively.
Easton, which has had a couple of tough setbacks early in the season, hopes that this win will springboard them in the right direction.
“That’s a big win, it’s going to give us some momentum,” White said.
The Bears improved to 2-3 while LCS slipped to 0-4.
“We certainly needed to get a win, we were a little frustrated after Friday’s (loss to Southern Aroostook),” said Shaw.
Shaw, in his first year at Easton after an eight-year stint coaching the boys at Hampden Academy, has liked what he’s seen from his fairly young team so far — four sophomores and two freshmen dot the roster.
“We’re just trying to do things right. It’ll come, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but we’re working on it,” said Shaw.
One facet of the game in which the Bears appeared to improve Tuesday was ball possession and shot selection, as they outshot the Eagles 24-15 and those that didn’t go in the net either sailed just over it or clanged off the crossbar.
“That’s the biggest thing, we’ve been working on possession, we don’t want to be one and done,” said Shaw. “We certainly want to work on possession getting the higher (percentage) shot as opposed to shanking it off to the side.”
Clark certainly had a breakout game offensively, and Shaw’s hoping to utilize him as much as possible throughout the year.
“He played more on the defensive side last year, but he’s played more in the mid for me,” said Shaw. “We’ll switch him around because he’s a versatile player, but he certainly has a lot of offensive skills that hopefully we’ll make use of.”
He certainly made use of them Tuesday.
Tompkins recorded five saves on 15 shots for Easton.
Jack Westfall scored late in the second half off a Curtis Pahel assist for Limestone. Aaron St. Pierre and Zach Moreau collaborated for five saves for the Eagles.
