PARIS – Edward Little boys’ soccer coach Dave Morin watched his team get itself into a familiar position Saturday, as Oxford Hills opened an early two-goal lead. The Eddies fought through the wind to earn a penalty shot goal to cut the deficit to one, and set sail in the second half with another pair in a come-from-behind, 3-2 victory over Oxford Hills.
“I thought we dominated the second half,” Morin told the Lewiston Sun Journal. “We were missing the net in the first half, and all of a sudden, we gave up those two quick goals. They’re an aggressive team, and they almost took advantage of it.”
With a deficit still staring the visitors in the face with less than 11 minutes to play in the game, Jared Pelletier spotted the ball up for a free kick well outside the 18-yard box near the right sideline. Instead of lofting the ball into the penalty area and hoping for a deflection, he fired the ball at the cage. A gust of wind carried the shot just underneath the crossbar, and Vikings’ keeper Matt McVety couldn’t get enough of it to keep it out of the cage.
“I was thinking of putting it on the cage the whole time,” Pelletier said. “I really had the two options, and I thought I’d go for it.”
That strike evened the game at 2-2 at the Don Gouin Athletic Complex in the teams’ season-opening KVAC soccer tilt. Less than a minute later, Pelletier struck again. This time, from 15 yards deeper, he again took aim at the goal. The ball struck the right-side post and ricocheted back to the left, Pelletier’s regular side of the field. Tim Mains was there to pound home the rebound, putting the Eddies in front.
“We switched, because he was taking the kick,” Mains said. “The ball came right out off the post and the goal was open.”
The contest was a windy affair, with the gusts helping Oxford Hills in the first half, and Edward Little in the second. The Vikings took advantage in their half, getting some help from the breeze and from some suspect goaltending.
Matt Beauchesne got the home squad on the board in the 15th minute on a drive to the low right corner of the cage on a ball that EL started Jeremy Hamm appeared to misplay. Less than six minutes later, a shot from more than 30 yards out hit Hamm in the hands and popped into the cage.