BREWER, Maine — Doyle Field is known primarily as the longtime home of Brewer High School football.
But the venerable facility hosted a celebration of another sport Tuesday night, not only renewing the Witches’ rivalry with neighboring Bangor but also honoring one of the leaders of the region’s soccer community.
And no doubt Dave Patterson would have loved it.
The Bangor boys soccer squad remained undefeated in the main event, scoring twice in the final three minutes of play to pull away to a 3-0 victory over its crossriver rival in their lone meeting of the regular season.
But that was just part of an evening of activities dedicated to the memory of Patterson, the former Bangor head coach who died of cancer in July.
Before the game, Patterson’s wife, Lori, and son Jack were introduced to the large crowd on hand from both cities, and Brewer’s varsity players gave jerseys bearing Patterson’s name to their Bangor counterparts.
At halftime, boys and girls youth teams from both communities squared off under the lights.
And perhaps most significantly, nearly $1,000 was raised through admission donations and a 50-50 raffle to be given to a scholarship fund being developed in Patterson’s name.
“When he passed away over the summer the captains said they wanted to do something for coach Patterson,” said Brewer coach Ben Poland. “So we brainstormed and (Brewer athletic administrator) Dave Utterback and I talked it out and came together with this and it kind of evolved into a celebration of soccer between the two communities.
“I know if coach Patterson were watching would have enjoyed this because he was a remarkable person and someone who really enjoyed good soccer.”
Brewer’s only three shots on Bangor goalie Stanley Clarke during the game were all long direct kicks, but the 6-0-2 Rams were unable to put the 2-5-1 Witches away until Liam Harrigan and Eli Clein scored 59 seconds apart in the final three minutes of play.
“It wasn’t our best performance but Brewer’s a gutsy team, they come out and work hard every time we play them,” said Harrigan, a senior midfielder who headed in a Carson Athlerley corner kick with 2:49 remaining to double what had been a 1-0 lead for nearly an hour of playing time. “I thought we stayed composed and were able to put the game away late, which says a lot.”
Clein followed with an insurance goal with 1:50 left, accepting a crossing pass from freshman Jacob Berenyi on the right side of the field and lining a shot past Brewer goalie Dan Vilasuso.
Vilasuso finished with 10 saves on 24 Bangor shots.
“We do have to do a better job of finishing,” said Bangor coach Billy Shannon. “When we’re not scoring goals in bunches it seems like we’re only scoring one goal a game. Tonight it was a close game for 78 minutes. We’ve got to do a better job of creating goal-scoring chances and finishing those goal-scoring chances so we’re not having to breathe a sigh of relief come the 80th minute and feel like we’ve gotten out of it by the skin of our teeth.”
Bangor got the only goal it needed from Javon Myers with 20:20 left in the first half. The junior forward gained control of the ball in the center of the field some 30 yards out, took a dribble and then rifled a left-footed shot to Vilasuso’s left.
“We feel like there’s a lot of room for improvement, we don’t feel like we’ve scratched our surface yet,” said Harrigan. “Coach Patterson always liked to say he wanted us to start the season going in a positive slope to be ready for the playoffs in October, and we’re on our way.”
