FORT KENT —- Even though the Caribou High School boys soccer team had to settle for a stalemate Monday night, it felt more like a victory for the Vikings.
After being dominated by Fort Kent in the first half, the Vikes turned up the heat in the second half with Ben Blackstone scoring with 10 minutes left in regulation to help coach Mark Shea’s club earn a 1-1 overtime tie.
The Vikings stand at 1-0-1 while Fort Kent is 2-0-2, with both ties coming against Class B foes.
The defending EM Class C champions tied Presque Isle earlier this month.
This match was a tale of two halves, with Fort Kent controlling the first half and scoring just before halftime before Caribou cranked up the intensity in the second half.
Blackstone, one of 12 Viking seniors, was right in the center of that.
Blackstone got the Vikes on the board with 10:37 to play as he outworked a Warrior defender along the right flank and had his shot deflec Alex Charette’s gloves, off the right post and into the cage.
“I got a good ball from Chad (Caverhill) and I finished the play,” said Blackstone.
Shea had moved Blackstone up to forward from stopper as Caribou went to a 4-4-2 (four backs, four midfielders, two strikers) alignment in the final minutes of the game.
“We moved him up front and he made me look good by scoring a goal right away,” Shea said. “We had a lot of good individual performances and Ben scoring a goal was huge for us.”
Fort Kent had a chance to regain the lead about a half minute later, but Jared Soucy’s point-blank shot was stuffed by goalkeeper Garrett Jordan, and neither team could generate any strong scoring chances in the final minutes of regulation.
The Vikings had the best chance to win it in the first overtime as Roland Thibodeau had a free kick in the first minute, but it sailed over the left-hand corner of the goal.
Fort Kent had the best chances in the final five minutes, but a Soucy header off an indirect kick went wide with 2:30 to play and Thomas Levesque’s shot on a breakaway just before the one-minute mark sailed just over the crossbar.
The first half was controlled by the host Warriors, who outworked the Vikings with their athleticism and quickness along the wings while Fort Kent’s sweeper and midfielders controlled the midfield and kept pressure off Charette.
The Warriors had all sorts of chances early in the half but couldn’t capitalize as two Soucy headers went just wide five minutes apart.
Fort Kent kept applying pressure as the half wore on, and Cody Lozier nearly put his team on the board in the 38th minute only to have his free kick clang off the cross bar.
Coach Tim Desjardins’ club finally struck with 23 seconds to go in the half with Antonio Naranja serving a perfect cross to an unmarked Levesque, who beat Jordan to the far post.
That gave the Warriors some momentum heading into the second half but it would be Caribou who turned up the heat as that goal provided the Vikes with a sense of urgency.
“It was a good motivating factor for us, we had played relatively well but we just needed to take it to the next level,” Shea said.
Caribou finally started attacking the net and generating some high-percentage chances, putting pressure on the Warriors’ back line.
“We played a little more passive in the first half than we did in the second half,” Blackstone said.
The Vikings also tightened up defensively with Roland Thibodeau and Breen Blackstone excelling on the back line marking the dangerous Soucy and Levesque, respectively.
“We knew it was going to be an intense game, Fort Kent always plays with a lot of intensity, and we knew we needed to up the intensity in the second half,” Shea said.
Jordan had six saves for Caribou and Charette 11 for the Warriors. Both teams had 23 shots at goal.
JV: Caribou 3-1.
