AUBURN — Early Saturday afternoon, Bangor High School’s Garth Berenyi wasn’t feeling so well.
Between the heat and sickness, the Rams’ sophomore soccer midfielder was battling hard while also focusing on a tough KVAC matchup against Edward Little.
By the end of the game Berenyi was feeling much better. His goal with 1:42 remaining in regulation lifted Bangor to a 1-0 road win over the Red Eddies.
“Garth really came up big today,” Bangor coach Billy Shannon said. “He gutted through and came up with a huge goal there at the end. That was clutch.”
It was a significant win for the Rams (3-1), who fell to Lewiston 5-0 on Thursday. Bangor took Friday to regroup and hoped to bounce back against EL (1-1-2).
“It was nice to see the guys respond,” Shannon said. “We didn’t come out on Thursday against Lewiston prepared for that kind of game. They played us off the pitch on both sides of the ball. They were better than we were. We’re gave the guys the day off and let them recover and let them get their heads right. Then they came out and executed the game plan.”
The game was back-and-forth for much of regulation, and it appeared overtime was inevitable. But, Bangor’s David Miller won the ball in the midfield and sent it ahead for Berenyi. He made a quick move by one defender and had some open space for a shot. He buried it in the lower left corner of the net with 1:42 remaining.
“There was one player in front of me,” Berenyi said. “I cut to the right. I kicked it kind of low corner and hoped for something. It was getting close to the end. We weren’t really able to finish. We had a lot of opportunities but couldn’t put it in the net. When we finally got that, we were really satisfied.”
Bangor outshot EL 12-10, but both teams created some offense. Both clubs were knocking on the door, but couldn’t finish.
“It was going to come down to someone getting on the end of an opportunity in front of the goal or somebody putting a good shot on frame,” Shannon said.
Neither team had great chances in the first half. Rams defender Conor O’Brien cleared the ball away from the Bangor net on an EL shot toward an open goal early in the game.
In the second half, both teams had surges that led to some pressure.
“We had our opportunities,” said EL coach Matt Andreasen said. “We had a couple of good ones. In a sport like soccer, you don’t get many opportunities, and you have to take advantage of the ones you do create for yourself. Bangor did. Bangor made a play.”
Owen Mower finished with six saves for EL while Bangor’s Stanley Clarke had four. It was the third shutout of the season for the Rams.
“It was definitely a better performance today,” Berenyi said. “We’re just really happy with the win.”