OLD TOWN, Maine — It appeared as though it was going to be another frustrating afternoon for the Old Town High School Coyotes in Saturday’s Northern Maine Class B preliminary soccer game.
But the Coyotes scored three goals in the final 13:41 to erase a 1-0 deficit and avenge two regular-season losses with a 3-1 victory.
Junior wing Jacob Ketch tied it with 13:41 remaining, junior striker Niko Knapp scored the game-winner two minutes later and senior midfielder Chad Bartlett provided an insurance goal with six minutes left.
Senior striker Hunter Milliard had staked the Vikings to a 1-0 lead late in the first half.
Sixth-seeded Old Town, 9-6 and winner of five of its last six, travels to Presque Isle for a 4 p.m. quarterfinal against the 7-4-3 Wildcats on Wednesday.
Eleventh seed Caribou finished at 5-8-2.
“We were a little flat in the first half, but we picked it up in the second half,” said Ketch. “We went to the ball and we played strong.”
Ketch’s equalizer resulted from sustained pressure and a fortuitous bounce off a Viking defender.
“The ball kept rolling so I had to sprint for it,” said Ketch, who alertly pushed it around goalie Ethan Plourde and deposited it into the empty net.
“Once they broke through, the momentum completely shifted,” said Caribou first-year coach Kyle Corrigan. “Their guys got fired up.”
Ketch also figured in the next two goals.
His low shot from outside the penalty area was directed past Plourde by Knapp, who sprinted from left to right across the goal area and extended his right foot to tap it beyond the diving goalie’s outstretched hands..
“I just try to find the gaps in the defense. (Plourde) is a good goalie. It’s hard to get the ball past him. You have to place it,” said Knapp.
Ketch then lofted a cross from the right flank into the penalty area where Bartlett used his 6-foot-4 frame to loop a 14-yard header over Plourde’s hands into the far corner.
“All the credit should go to Jacob Ketch,” said Bartlett. “It was a fantastic cross.”
The Vikings had a slight edge in play in the first half and took a 1-0 lead when Milliard outraced two defenders for Paul Hanson’s lofted ball and flicked it past oncoming goalie Austin Sheehan.
But the second half belonged to Old Town, which kept Caribou pinned in its own end most of the half.
“We usually turn it up in the second half,” said Knapp.
Corrigan felt his team played “a little too defensive-minded” in the second half.
“We were playing the ball up the middle rather than to the sidelines or the flag,” said Corrigan, whose game plan was to get the ball to the flanks, let their attacking players go one-on-one against Old Town’s defenders and try to slide balls across the penalty area.
Sheehan finished with six saves on 16 shots while Plourde had nine on 21 shots.
The energetic Drew Coulombe turned in a stellar performance in the midfield for Old Town and Zac Libby, Kaleb Gifford and Ben Quimby were stalwarts defensively.
The tireless and tenacious Milliard had nine of Caribou’s 16 shots. Hanson was exceptional in the back and Andre Rossignol was impressive in the midfield.