BANGOR — Little comes easy when the schoolboy soccer schedule turns to postseason — a fact that a Bangor High School program now accustomed to deep playoff runs acutely understands.
Thursday evening’s Eastern A quarterfinal against Erskine Academy of South China was no different, but coach David Patterson’s top-ranked Rams used second-half goals by Jack Stacey and Phil Frost and its collective experience to edge the Eagles 2-1.
“It’s like night and day compared to the regular season,” said Stacey, a senior back. “Even driving into school this morning, everyone’s thoughts were about the game, and it’s hard to focus on school. When we finally get out here and get a chance to knock it around it comes down a little bit, but it’s still there, it’s still intense.”
Bangor (14-0-1) will host No. 4 Morse of Bath (10-5) in a semifinal at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. No. 8 Erskine, which lost to the Rams in the 2009 semifinals, finishes 8-6-1.
Bangor outshot Erskine 13-7 in the first half, but the Eagles had one of the best early chances when Ryan Pulver was sent in on a partial breakaway only to have the Rams’ Bobby Winchell deny the scoring bid with a sliding tackle near the 18-yard line.
Bangor finally took the lead 8:33 into the second half when Stacey scored his first goal of the season on a corner kick.
“They had left the front post open all night long so I was trying to hit it there,” said Stacey. “I hit it there again, and (teammate) Alex Shi was on the front post and he dummied it (faked contact with the ball and let it go through), then it bounced behind him and into the net.”
Teammate Jacques Larochelle blasted a shot off the outside of the left post moments later before the Rams extended their lead with 22:39 left when Frost scored his team-leading 20th goal off a long lead pass up the middle of the field from Seth Freudenberger.
“I possessed the ball and looked ahead and saw Luke (Hetterman) and he had two or three guys on him and I saw Phil so I tried to put it up the seam up to him and luckily it worked out and he scored,” said Freudenberger.
Frost received the pass about 25 yards from the goal, then eluded Erskine goalie Zack Busmanis before directing the ball into the net.
“Seth won the ball in the middle and he picked his head up and saw both Luke and me streaking,” said Frost. “I just happened to get the through-ball this time and I knew I had to beat the keeper because he was coming out hard.”
Erskine used a long pass of its own from Brian Potter to Pulver that led to Pulver being tripped inside the 18. That gave the Eagles a penalty kick that Potter converted to make it a one-goal match with 19:41 left.
The Eagles continued to apply pressure for several minutes, but couldn’t get the equalizer before Bangor regained control.
“I thought we played a pretty solid game,” said Erskine coach Phil Hubbard. “To give up the two goals in the second half and have the composure to come back and get the PK and then have three or four chances to possibly tie it up, you really can’t complain. The rushes were there, but Bangor’s a great team.”
Bangor outshot Erskine 27-13, with Jesse Perkins making five saves for the Rams and Busmanis eight for the Eagles.
“We’ve got some boys who have been here before, and I think that experience showed tonight,” said Patterson. “We were calm, we were composed. We got a lucky break with the first goal, but overall I thought we played a very strong game.”
