HAMPDEN, Maine — Despite being the better team in the first half, the third-seeded Fort Kent High School soccer team found itself trailing top seed Orono, 1-0, at the intermission of their Class C North soccer championship game at the rainy Hampden Academy field on Tuesday night.
But the Warriors had rallied from a 1-0 deficit to beat second seed George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill/Deer Isle-Stonington in their semifinal on penalty kicks and, this time, they needed just 26 seconds of overtime to upset Orono, 2-1.
Fort Kent, now 10-6-1, will take on 16-1 Hall-Dale of Farmingdale in Saturday’s Class C state championship game in Lewiston. Hall-Dale edged Mount Abram of Salem Township, 2-1, for its 16th consecutive win.
Orono wound up 14-2-1.
Senior striker-midfielder Dominic Cyr forced the overtime by scoring with 16:09 left in regulation and he won it when the Warriors were awarded a penalty kick 26 seconds into the extra session and he converted.
Sophomore Gabe Lule’s free kick with 22:29 left in the first half staked Orono to a 1-0 lead.
It was one of few chances for the Riots in that first half as Fort Kent dominated the opening 40 minutes, winning most of the 50-50 balls and having a 10-5 edge in shot attempts.
“That goal was very unfortunate but we just stuck with it in the second half. We never gave up,” said Cyr. “We kept fighting until the end.”
“We had come back from 1-0 down in our semifinal so we had the same mindset,” said Fort Kent coach Kalusha Kotes. “We tried to keep the momentum. We didn’t think about being a goal down.”
The speedy Cyr tied the game off a long through ball by Wyatt Daigle.
He found himself in a one-on-one against a Riot defender.
“He was right on my back so I took a big touch to get away from him and then hit it with the outside of my (right) foot because I knew the ‘keeper (Moritz Wutzler) was coming out,” said Cyr, who steered it to the left of the on-rushing Wutzler.
Cyr was again able to get behind a defender in overtime and it led to the penalty kick.
He dribbled the ball along the end line to the right of Wutzler, cut out in front of the goal between two defenders and stumbled to the ground. The referee decided to award a penalty kick.
“They were on me like flies,” said Cyr. “I tried to kick it and got taken down.”
He then stepped up to the penalty spot and rifled a rising shot over the hands of Wutzler.
“I was very nervous. But I did what I do best and put it where I usually go with it,” said Cyr.
“I told our guys all day long to not let them get in behind us,” said Orono coach Dave Hamel. “And on the two goals they scored, they got in behind us.”
Lule opened the scoring with a well-struck free kick from just outside the left edge of the penalty area. He drilled it with plenty of pace and it glanced into the short side corner off the hands of Fort Kent goalkeeper Kyle Paradis.
The dynamic Lule and his equally gifted freshman brother Oli were the primary threats for the Riots and they nearly expanded the lead early in the second half.
Gabe Lule sprinted behind the Warrior defense onto a pass and was able to get a touch on it but Paradis came racing off his goal line and smothered it before he got off a shot.
Moments later, Oli Lule took a powerful shot from the left side of the box that Paradis got his hands on.
The rebound spilled to Gabe Lule and he slammed the rebound wide of the post to Paradis’ right.
“We knew we had to come out and play our best game today,” said Kotes. “I was proud of our boys. I was proud of both teams. It was a very good game. I thought it would go back and forth.”
Hamel said his team “didn’t play particularly well.
“The (wet) environment didn’t cater to our style. We like to possess the ball. We didn’t make the adjustment and that’s on us,” said Hamel. “Nobody played particularly poorly on our end. We just didn’t play our game. It’s unfortunate.
“We had our chances. No question. But this isn’t the end of the book. It’s just one chapter. We’ll be back,” Hamel added.
Orono played better in the second half, outshooting Fort Kent 9-4, but the Red Riots couldn’t add to their lead.
Paradis finished with five saves on 14 shot attempts while Wutzler wound up with four stops on 15 shots.
Wutzler made a nice point-blank save off Cyr in the first half and also got his fingertips on Noah Plourde’s blistering shot from just outside the penalty area later in the half.
In addition to Cyr, Kotes felt he received quality performances from senior midfielder-back Finley Marquis and senior back Caleb Pelletier along with junior goalkeeper Paradis.
The Lule brothers were a constant threat and Hamel said he also received impressive performances from senior midfielder Lucas Hiebeler and sophomore midfielder Will Mitchell along with goalkeeper Wutzler.