The Bangor High School girls soccer team carried the play for most of Friday night’s Class A North soccer game against Brunswick. But the opportunistic Dragons taught the Rams the value of corner kicks in the second half.
Isabella Banks and Molly Taub scored off Logan Brown on corner kicks, and sophomore goalkeeper Aisley Snell turned in an excellent performance as the Dragons triumphed 3-0 on Bangor’s “Seniors Night” at the high school field.
Brunswick improved to 10-2, while Bangor, which has scored only five goals in its past four games, fell to 6-5-2.
“We are dangerous from set plays. We work a lot on them,” Brunswick coach Martyn Davison said. “Logan Brown presents a great corner, and we have people who just have to be brave enough to head it. We’ve scored quite a few goals off corners this year.”
Banks scored what proved to be the game-winner 7:40 into the second half when she was left unmarked at the top of the 6-yard box and glanced a forceful header past Bangor goalie Emma McNeil.
“I was really open. I think there was a little confusion between their defenders, which typically happens. I like to fake one way and go the other way,” Banks said. “It worked this time. Logan’s ball was absolutely perfect.”
The Dragons expanded the lead 10 minutes later when Brown’s corner glanced in off Taub’s back.
“When we get a corner, we always put our best effort on there,” Banks said. “We have a lot of tall girls on our team.”
Kynli Van Leer added an insurance goal off a Taub assist with a rising shot into the short-side corner from 12 yards out.
Bangor had 17 shot attempts to Brunswick’s 11 but failed to beat Snell, who made a couple of gems in the second half among her five saves in the game.
Two minutes into the second half, she dove to her right to snare Sasha Jansujwicz’s 24-yard free kick.
“I just tracked it and put my hands behind it,” said Snell, who preserved her shutout by again diving to her right late in the game to rob Emilyn Streams, who had cut into open space in the middle of the penalty area before launching a powerful shot.
Bangor coach Andrew Varisco said his team played well but couldn’t find the back of the net.
“We passed well, we moved well, we created opportunities, but we just couldn’t finish,” Varisco said.
After an evenly played first 20 minutes, Bangor carried the play over the second 20 minutes but could not transform its dominance into a goal.
Bangor had 10 shot attempts in the first half to Brunswick’s three but eight of their shots missed the net, one was blocked and Snell made only one routine save.
The Jansujwicz sisters, Eliza and Sasha, controlled the midfield, and freshmen Streams and Anna Connors presented problems for the Dragons on the flanks.
Streams and Connors each sent some dangerous crosses into the penalty area, but the Dragons got numbers back and did an efficient job marking the Rams and making timely clearances.
Maddie Ahola had one of the best scoring chances when a Streams cross deflected to her off Rowan Andrews’ body. But her 12-yard shot sailed wide of the post to Snell’s right.
Eliza Jansujwicz nearly broke a scoreless deadlock just before the halftime whistle, but the alert Snell raced off her line to smother the ball just before Jansujwicz swooped on it.
Brunswick had a potential 3-on-1 break but Mackenzie Lambert was able to break it up for Bangor.
Taub nearly broke in alone on McNeil, but Bella Parkin assessed the danger and swiftly slid over to poke the ball away.
McNeil finished with three saves for Bangor.
Davison said he gave his team a stern talk at halftime, and the girls responded with a much better showing in the second half.