The Bangor High School girls soccer team made it five wins in a row —its third in four days — on Thursday, receiving a pair of goals apiece from junior right wing Lily Chandler and senior striker Emmie Streams en route to an impressive 6-1 victory over Oxford Hills of South Paris at Cameron Stadium.
Bangor is now 7-1-4 and has outscored its last five opponents 24-3.
Oxford Hills fell to 8-4 after losing for just the second time in 10 games.
Junior midfielder Olivia Scott and sophomore midfielder Ayzlynn Gifford had the other goals.
Senior midfielder Ashley Richardson scored for Oxford Hills.
HEAL POINT STANDINGS
Bangor was relentless and had a huge advantage in possession.
The score would have been more lopsided if not for the exceptional goalkeeping of Oxford Hills sophomore Madelyn Herrick, who finished with 14 saves including five breakaway stops in the first half and a penalty shot stop in the second half.
Scott and Chandler scored first-half goals before Streams scored her pair in the second half with Gifford and Chandler notching the other goals.
Bangor attempted 30 shots to Oxford Hills’ 10.
Senior goalie Emma McNeil made one save for Oxford Hills and it came on a breakaway.
“We played really well. We connected well in the beginning and found our rhythm after a little bit,” Streams said. “In the second half, we took it up a notch and started finishing.”
Streams, who was thwarted on three first-half breakaways, credited Herrick for her performance.
“We had a hard time figuring out their formation in the first half,” said Oxford Hills coach Brittany Moore. “As soon as one of their attacking midfielders slingshotted forward, we just lost them. If we had figured that out a bit sooner, it would have changed how we handled the game.”
Pivotal play: Chandler’s goal with 7:50 left in the first half supplied the Rams with a valuable cushion after Scott had opened the scoring just 11:26 into the game.
It had been a frustrating half for the Rams with so many breakaways but just a 1-0 lead until Chandler scored.
Chandler was set up nicely by Streams and was able to get past Herrick before depositing the ball into the net with her left foot.
“[Herrick] likes to come out a lot and their back line was super wide. So those runs in behind them were super helpful,” Chandler said. “Emmie played a beautiful ball behind their left back and I was able to tap it in.”
Scott had scored off a Callie Tennett corner as the ball pinballed to Abbie Quinn, who was back to goal and pushed the ball back to Scott.
Scott calmly sailed it into the top corner past the right side of Herrick.
“I had been overhitting the ball a lot recently so I just hit it lightly,” Scott said.
In the second half, Streams converted a break-in and Gifford found the top corner from the top of the penalty area off a Streams pass to make it 4-0 and sew up the victory.
Richardson made it 4-1 before Chandler and Streams added their second goals.
Big takeaway: Bangor continued to build momentum for the playoffs by thoroughly dominating the Vikings, swarming to the ball and winning the vast majority of the 50-50 balls while also creating a ton of scoring chances.
But the Rams need to work on finishing because the inability to capitalize on their scoring chances could prove costly in the playoffs.
Up next: Bangor has a crucial 10 a.m. game at Mt. Blue of Farmington. The winner will most likely wind up second in the Class A North Heal Point standings so it would host all of its playoff games until the regional final, which will be held at Cony High of Augusta on Nov. 1.
Oxford Hills visits Mt. Ararat of Topsham on Saturday at 1:45 p.m.