BANGOR, Maine — The undefeated Bangor High School Rams had a battle on their hands against a vastly improved Brewer team for a half in their Eastern Maine Class A school girl soccer game on Monday night.
But the defending four-time Eastern Maine champion Rams used their superior depth to wear down the Witches, scoring four second-half goals, including three by senior striker Mary Butler, en route to a 4-0 triumph.
Bangor’s win was its third in a row. The Rams improved to 6-0-2.
Brewer is now 4-3-1 after losing its third straight and is 0-3-1 in its last four.
Bangor had a slight edge in possession in a relatively even first half.
Senior striker Alli Boulier broke the scoreless deadlock with 32:19 left in the second half and Butler extended the lead eight minutes later. Butler’s first goal came less than a minute after Brewer had a great chance to equalize when Hannah Laskey’s neat little through ball sent leading scorer Gretchen Wright in on Bangor goalie Emily Gilmore.
But Wright pushed the ball ahead a few feet with her first touch, which allowed Gilmore to scramble out and smother it.
“She was just about to shoot when I dove on it. Then I knew I had to get the ball out quick to start the transition. I got it out to Erynne [Sauda] to push the tempo,” Gilmore said.
Sauda sent the ball up the right flank to Butler, who raced down the field and sprinted into the penalty area before tucking a low 14-yard shot into the far corner past Brewer goalie Mikayla Henderson.
“There was a lot of space and I made a flag run. Erynne hit me in stride,” Butler said. “The goalie stepped out a little bit and I was able to get my shot off.
“Our strength has been our ability to transition,” she added.
Brewer first-year coach David Hamel said if the ground had been a little softer or the grass was a little thicker and Wright had been able to keep the ball closer to her, she might have been able to equalize.
“Then they go down the field: one touch, one pass, two touches, two passes and boom, they score,” Hamel said. “It went potentially from 1-1 to 2-0.”
“Any time one team gets a chance to score and doesn’t and the other team comes down and scores, it hurts a lot,” Bangor coach Joe Johnson said.
Butler scored again seven minutes later off a run down the left flank off a pass from her sister Katie.
Mary Butler rifled an angled shot into the short-side corner from eight yards out.
She capped her hat trick by splitting a pair of defenders off a feed from Emma Barnett and pushing the ball past Henderson.
“We played a very skilled Brewer team that passed the ball well,” Johnson said. “It took us a while to wear them down. Going to the bench like we do certainly helped us in the second half.”
“We came out in the second half with a lot more energy,” said Boulier, who converted a Megan Conner into the game’s opening goal.
Boulier cut back to her left at the top of the penalty area and rifled a left-footed shot back against the grain into the upper corner to Henderson’s left.
“Bangor had a tremendous amount of depth,” Hamel said. “They have more than we do. But I was proud of the way the girls kept battling. The score wasn’t indicative of the game.”
Johnson praised the performances turned in by Butler and Boulier along with midfielders Barnett and Conner. Grace Morris was immense in the back.
Hamel thought midfielders Emily Lord and Courtney Pearson turned in exceptional performances as did Laskey, Ellie Leighton and Henderson. Sam Pellegrino was solid in the back.
Gilmore finished with three saves on 10 shots before Page Cadorette finished up.
Henderson wound up with 10 stops on 28 shots.