BANGOR, Maine — The unbeaten and untied Bangor High School girls soccer team was challenged in the early going by its intown rival John Bapst, but the Rams scored goals just 1:05 apart from senior forward Lily Chandler and sophomore forward Clara Oldenburg en route to a 5-0 victory, Wednesday, at Cameron Stadium.
Oldenburg finished with a pair of goals as Class A North Heal Points standings leader Bangor improved to 12-0. Senior Olivia Scott and junior Teagan Atherley, both midfielders, scored the other goals.
Junior goalkeeper Eva Coombs finished with two saves on nine John Bapst shot attempts as the Rams posted their seventh shutout.
Senior Ruby Dwyer made 10 saves on 26 Bangor shots including several terrific saves in the second half.
The hard-working Crusaders fell to 4-8 in Class B North, but four of those losses were by one goal, including setbacks to Ellsworth, Old Town and Hermon, who are ranked third, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Heal Points standings.
Bangor will travel to play defending two-time Class A North champ Brunswick on Thursday at 6 p.m., while John Bapst will entertain Presque Isle on Saturday at 5.
Bangor first-year head coach Jay Kemble said he felt his team came out “a little flat” because they were thinking ahead to the Brunswick game.
“But we picked up our intensity as the game went along, and we had some young kids who played pretty well defensively. They gave us some speed and saved some of our legs for tomorrow night,” said Kemble.
“We’ve been solid offensively all year, but I feel we’re getting better at defending more consistently,” he added.
“We know it’s going to be a challenge this week playing back-to-back games with one of our biggest games of the season on Thursday,” said Scott, who will play at the University of Maine next season. “We knew we were going to do a lot of subbing in this game so we had to let the ball do the work.
“Every single player on our team did a good job coming in and doing their jobs so we can play at our best against Brunswick tomorrow,” Scott added.
Chandler opened the scoring 11:07 into the game after her cross hit somebody in the middle of the penalty area and rebounded over to her.
“I got a first touch on it and put it in the top corner,” said Chandler who curled a nice 16-yard shot into the upper short side corner.
Just 1:05 later Scott found Oldenburg with a pass and she guided the ball past Dwyer from short range.
“She was pretty wide open making a run in behind (the defenders),” said Scott, who expanded the lead to 3-0 with 17:38 left in the first half.
“The ball came to me at the top of the box. I had time and space and shot it,” said Scott, who found the top corner with her well-placed shot.
Oldenburg made it 4-0 just 23 seconds into the second half by slotting her shot into the far corner and Atherley capped the scoring 2:55 later when she was set up perfectly by Azlynn Gifford and simply had to extend her foot to direct the ball into the open net from inside the six-yard box.
Talented junior midfielder Claire Gaetani had the Crusaders’ best chance in the first half, but her low shot from the top of the penalty area sizzled just wide of the far post.
Late in the game, John Bapst senior striker Sydney Legasse had John Bapst’s best opportunity when a loose ball squirted to her in the left side of the penalty area, eight yards from goal.
But Coombs dove across to her right to make an outstanding save.
John Bapst coach Steve Lammert said playing Bangor is “always going to be a very tough game for us or for anybody.
“They are awfully fast, big and strong and quick to the ball. We couldn’t match them,” said Lammert.
He noted that Bangor is the only team that has scored more than one goal against them this season, as Bangor beat the Crusaders 7-2 on Sept. 14.
Bangor has outscored its opponents 62-6.