PRESQUE ISLE — Caribou High School senior Jenna Selander’s play Wednesday night may suggest that there is a shifting of powers in Aroostook County schoolgirl soccer.
The Vikings’ star striker posted a hat trick, scoring two of the goals in the second half as Caribou posted a 5-3 victory over rival Presque Isle at the Johnson Complex.
Coach Todd Albert’s Vikings, who played in the EM Class B final last fall, improves to 2-0-1 while Presque Isle was playing its season opener.
The confident Vikings not only defeated the same Wildcat club it knocked off in last fall’s postseason, but they handed Presque Isle a rare regular-season home loss on its artificial turf field.
“That was a big part of it, even when we say we’re confident there’s always a little bit of nervousness when you play any team, but today, we just put that out of the way and played our game,” said Selander.
That game involved taking advantage of restarts, with three of Caribou’s five goals coming on set plays, two on corner kicks and another on an indirect kick.
“We’ve worked on our corner kick runs, we’ll change it throughout the season so it’s not always the same,” said Albert.
The first half featured equal scoring opportunities for both sides, with the Wildcats striking first thanks to two of the most dangerous offensive weapons in Class B.
Chandler Guerrette sent a high corner kick into the penalty area and Kayla Richards drilled a perfect header past Caribou goalkeeper Morgan Swan for a 1-0 lead 5:04 into the game.
But the Vikings never wavered from that, and took control shortly thereafter.
“I don’t think it even bothered us too much, we knew we had a whole game ahead of us, it’s the score at the end that matters,” Selander said. “We kept our heads up, played our game.”
The Vikes took a 2-1 lead and the momentum into halftime with two goals 10 minutes apart.
Their first goal somewhat mirrored that of Presque Isle’s, with Olivia Sleeper one-timing Paige Small’s corner kick into the cage with 29:53 left.
After Presque Isle goalkeeper Meredith Stewart stuffed breakaways by Katelynn Tardie and Selander about a minute apart, Selander was set up on a break by Tardie and then beat her mark down the right flank and slammed the ball inside the far post.
The Wildcats had a couple chances to equalize before halftime, but Swan was right there to preserve the deadlock.
Caribou then rode its wave of momentum into the second half with Selander heading home a Small corner kick 7:50 into the half and Olivia Sleeper scoring at the 22:08 mark to give the Vikings a 4-1 lead.
Presque Isle made it interesting on Guerrette’s tally from 25 yards out with 19:20 to go, but Selander’s goal off an indirect kick by Small with 4:01 left put it away.
The kick was set up right in front of the cage, and Small tapped the top of the ball, allowing Selander to blister it over the Presque Isle wall.
“I was so proud of the way we played,” Selander said. “We played so much as a team. We’re passing the ball like we should, looking up like we should. When that happened, a lot of opportunities came.”
Megan Ireland scored Presque Isle’s final goal inside of two minutes to play, with Nickerson assisting.
Caribou’s veteran attackers did a great job of keeping pressure on the Wildcats’ young back line. Ten of coach Ralph Michaud’s 18 players are sophomores, including ’keeper Stewart.
“You can put Jamie and Olivia on the outside and Jenna out front and that’s pretty hard for many teams to be able to stay with them,” said Albert.
Caribou’s fullbacks and midfielders also excelled at getting the ball up to Martin, Selander and Small, while the Vikings’ possession game was crisp while they won a high percentage of the 50-50 balls.
Michaud’s Wildcats will have to regroup quickly with another tough test against Katie DeShane and Old Town on Saturday.
“We’re so young with 10 sophomores, it’s a learning process right now,” Michaud said. “Give Caribou credit, they played well.”
Both teams played clean, aggressive soccer, with PI’s Karlee Bernier doing a solid job marking the dangerous Selander while speedy Caribou junior Jamie Martin was effective along the wings. The Vikings’ backs also did a nice job keeping Richards, Guerrette and Nickerson at bay.
Swan came up with seven saves on 19 shots for Caribou while Stewart had nine of 19 for Presque Isle.
