FARMINGDALE — The opportunities to score were scarce, but the Hall-Dale boys soccer team took advantage of its chances.

Thanks to two goals by Konnor Longfellow, the Bulldogs, the No. 1 seed in the Western Class C playoffs, defeated No. 8 Sacopee Valley 2-0 Wednesday in a Western Maine Class C quarterfinal game.

Hall-Dale (15-0-0) will host No. 4 St. Dominic in the semifinals. The Saints (13-2-1) beat No. 5 Mt. Abram 1-0 Wednesday in Lewiston.

The Bulldogs had their hands full defensively with the Hawks. Thanks to an aggressive offensive style, Sacopee Valley (7-4-4) kept the ball on the Hall-Dale side of the field for most of the game.

“We were very offensive minded, very attack minded,” Sacopee Valley head coach Mike Lane said. “The unfortunate thing is, we (usually) score goals.”

Hall-Dale, which plays in the Mountain Valley Conference, had not seen Sacopee Valley , which plays in the Western Maine Conference, during the regular season.

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“They lost to (North Yarmouth Academy) by a goal, they tied with Waynflete, so you know they’ve got a good club,” Hall-Dale coach Andy Haskell said. “This is a game that I worried about, because I knew they were well-coached, they had some good technical players, they have a few kids who are dangerous and put the ball in the net.”

The Bulldogs, who have allowed six goals all season, were able to limit the number of direct shots to the net with deflections or steals. When that didn’t work, Hall-Dale goalkeeper Brian Allen made key saves throughout the game.

Allen’s two biggest saves came midway through the second half. In a seven minute span, Allen made a diving stop on a rebound off the post by Sacopee Valley’s Justin Ray. Later, he made a diving save on a shot toward the net by Matteo Pascucci.

“Brian’s been playing real well,” Haskell said. “We got three or four nice saves out of Brian, the defense was solid, the midfield was solid. We just took advantage on some unbalanced plays and scored.”

The Bulldogs’ first scoring opportunity came midway through the first half. Nat Crocker was able to deflect a long pass toward Longfellow, who snuck a shot past Hawks goalkeeper Michael Pingree toward the left post for the 1-0 lead. The goal was Hall-Dale’s only scoring chance of the first half.

“He tapped it to me through two defenders and I just put it in the left side of the net,” Longfellow said.

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Longfellow added his second goal, which cemented the win, with six minutes remaining. Longfellow was able to make a move toward the net and past a diving Pingree, knocking a shot into the net.

Though they were unable to score, Lane had no complaints about the Hawks play.

“We had some great opportunities, probably more looks than they did,” Lane said. “(Hall-Dale) finished, twice. They have some kids, you can tell why some of their kids have scored the number of goals that they have. They lost no composure when they had the opporunity, and scored on their opportunities.”

Hall-Dale now moves on to St. Dom’s. Unlike the Hawks, the Bulldogs are quite familiar with the Saints. The two teams played against each other twice during the season. Hall-Dale beat St. Dom’s 1-0 in a regular season match back on Oct. 11, then beat the Saints again for the MVC championship by a 4-1 score.

“We’re confident,” Longfellow said. “We played them up at Thomas (College) and that was 1-0. Then we played them for MVCs and that was 4-1. Obviously, we’ve grown as a team since then. I think it’s going to be a good matchup.”

Dave Dyer — 621-5639ddyer@centralmaine.com


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