BRUNSWICK, Maine — It had been a long wait for both the Brunswick and Hampden Academy boys soccer teams.
On Tuesday, the Dragons and Broncos played their first Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference game this season, with some KVAC squads already having two contests under their belts.
In a game of two very different halves, Hampden Academy scored a pair of second-half goals for a 2-1 win.
After Brunswick (0-1) controlled the majority of the first half and claimed a 1-0 lead, the Broncos rode the momentum attained late in the opening stanza, using their skill to find open looks on Brunswick netminder Josh Dorr, who had seven saves, six in the second half.
“There are two halves in the game, and they came out the way I thought they would in the second half because Hampden is too good of a team and too well coached, and we just didn’t meet the challenge in the second half,” said Brunswick coach Mark Roma. “They capitalized on some things, and they took advantage of those chances.”
With Hampden down 1-0, the Broncos’ Dan Good was pulled down inside the penalty area, resulting in a penalty kick. His shot just slipped past the dive of Dorr inside the left post to tie the game with 28:36 remaining.
Austin Nute, Tristan Gardner and Noah Parker combined on the game-winning goal with 6:46 left in regulation. Nute won a battle at midfield, with the ball deflecting to Gardner. His lead pass caught Parker on the run, with his shot finding the back of the net.
“He is a tremendous player, and to get the ball forward and have Noah one-on-one with a defender, we will take that any day,” said Hampden Academy coach Josh Stevens of Parker.
“We came out slow and Brunswick had a great first half,” said Parker. “As we got settled in, things started to come together. It was difficult today. At halftime, we got it sorted together and it was all mental.”
Brunswick, behind the play of midfielders Cameron Glover and JD Souza, kept the ball on the ground early and had the Broncos on their heels in the first half. Souza had a nice chance on a free kick that sailed inches above the crossbar, and Glover’s header off a corner kick was stopped by Hampden goaltender Kyle Townsend (six saves).
Brunswick kept coming, with the Dragons taking eight of the first nine shots and earning the first six corner kicks. Brunswick claimed a 1-0 lead at 11:36. Souza took a nice pass from Jesse Arford and launched a shot that Townsend dove to stop. Marcos Martinez was in perfect position to put the rebound into the empty net.
Hampden seemed to find its flow late in the first half. The Broncos launched the final four shots of the frame and picked up three corner kicks, giving the visitors some momentum heading to the break.
“We didn’t play anything like we wanted to and it looked like the first game of the season,” said Stevens. “We felt like we started to get them in the last five minutes of the half, and we wanted to come out and keep some consistent pressure on them.”
After Brunswick’s Keenan Welzel fired a shot high of the target, the Broncos took over. Gardner was a constant thorn in Brunswick’s side, using his long reach to control possession. Hampden ended with a 16-15 shots advantage, with the Dragons holding a 7-5 edge in corner kicks.
“We got out of here with a win, and that is big,” said Stevens. “Coming off what we did last year [Eastern A champs], we wanted to start over with a new group and get our own identity. We can only get better from here.”