ORONO, Maine — Taylor Schildroth dazzled the Class C basketball world last winter with a blend of speed, quickness, shooting and ballhandling that propelled George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill to a state championship.
He used those same skills to lead the Eagles to another postseason victory Tuesday — only this time on the soccer pitch.
The junior striker scored three goals during an eight-minute, five-second stretch of the first half as ninth-ranked George Stevens avenged two regular-season losses with a 3-0 victory over top-ranked Orono in a Class C North quarterfinal.
All three goals came on breakaways in the offensive end where Schildroth gained possession and got behind the Orono defense to ground the ball past unprotected Red Riots goalie Nathan Reid.
“We played Orono twice, and they played a really good four-flat back [defense], so we’ve been practicing for it expecting they were going to do that,” said Schildroth, a Bangor Daily News All-Maine honoree for his efforts on the basketball court for the Eagles last winter. “We knew we had to stay onsides and hit the seams, and we did that.
“The first two times we played them we struggled with that, but we came in prepared today,” he added.
George Stevens’ second quarterfinal win over Orono in as many years advances coach Mark Ensworth’s club to a semifinal against No. 4 Houlton on Friday. The Shiretowners eliminated No. 5 Fort Kent 2-0 on Tuesday.
Orono finished at 13-2.
George Stevens (10-6) was seeded ninth in great part because it lost all of its most pointworthy games during the regular season. The teams that defeated the Eagles twice — Orono, defending Class C state champion Washington Academy of East Machias and perennial Class B contender Ellsworth — combined for a 35-6-1 record entering the playoffs.
But George Stevens now has posted two straight playoff shutouts, with a 2-0 prelim win over No. 8 Limestone/Maine School of Science and Mathematics preceding the victory over an Orono team it struggled to score against in 1-0 and 3-1 losses earlier this fall.
“Our Achilles heel has been our finishing,” said Ensworth, “but finally the ball is bouncing our way a little bit, we’ve gotten more confident, and we’re finally putting it in the back of the net.”
Orono had its best sustained offense early in the first half, generating scoring opportunities for Jacob Fandel, Ben Allan-Rahill and Trent Lick.
But George Stevens eventually made the Red Riots pay on the counterattack, initially with a long clearing pass by junior midfielder Ben Cole sending Schildroth in ahead of the field to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead with 15:53 left in the opening half.
Senior midfielder John Larson provided the setup pass six minutes later, this time a short advancing effort from near midfield that again allowed Schildroth to outrace a defender to the ball for another one-on-one opportunity that extended George Stevens’ lead to 2-0 with 9:27 left until intermission.
Schildroth completed his hat trick 99 seconds later, this time dribbling between two defenders after gaining control of a contested ball some 40 yards out and advancing into position to place the ball past Reid one final time with 7:48 left in the half.
“We’ve got a lot of speed up front, but it starts in the middle of the field for us, too,” said Ensworth. “Those kids played some beautiful balls to Taylor and set him up really well, and our defense did a good job of stopping [Orono] and getting it to those guys.”
The senior-laden George Stevens defense — Ben Politte, Sam Scheff, Tyler Brenton and Trent Williamson — did the rest, denying Orono any serious scoring bids against junior goalie Alec Witham after intermission.
The Eagles finished with a 20-11 shots advantage, with Witham making six saves and Reid nine.
“They were just on their game today,” said Ensworth of his team’s defense. “They work so well together and have been playing together for so long that they can trust each other, know where each other is going to be and back each other up.”
