READFIELD — The outcome of the Western Class C girls soccer preliminary game between Maranacook and Mt. Abram was never in question. It was simply a matter of how many goals Maranacook was going to score.
The Black Bears beat the Roadrunners 3-0 Saturday at Ricky Gibson Field of Dreams. It could have been far more lopsided, but the fifth-seeded Black Bears (11-3-1) missed on scoring opportunities early in the first half and throughout the second half.
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Finishing games will be the focus of Maranacook as it moves on into the quarterfinal round.
“It’s always important to finish,” Maranacook coach Michael Morin said. “They played hard, you can’t ask anything more of them. Finishing games, that’s something that we need to work on.”
Sage Hyland led the Black Bears with two goals, one scored in each half, while Jana Elwell added a goal. The Black Bears outshot the 12th-seeded Roadrunners (5-9-1) by a 13-2 margin.
Hyland, a senior, tallied Maranacook’s first goal of the game midway through the first half when she and Mt. Abram goalkeeper Abigayle Brackley charged after a loose ball. Hyland managed to get to it first, flipping a shot around Brackley and into the back corner of the net to give the Black Bears a 1-0.
Hyland recently moved from sweeper to her natural midfield position.
“I had been a sweeper pretty much the whole season,” Hyland said. “Moving up to midfield was nice, because that’s where I used to play, being able to be in the offense and just helping out everyone and getting people going was pretty nice.”
Elwell’s goal came late in the half, when a shot by Lillie McLaughlin became an inadvertent cross, going between Brackley’s legs to Elwell, who knocked the ball into the net for the 2-0 lead, where it remained until halftime.
Maranacook kept the pressure on throughout the second half. Hyland scored her second goal seven minutes into the half, finding a loose ball in front of a busy Mt. Abram net and shooting it past Brackley for the 3-0 lead.
Hyland and McLaughlin each had scoring opportunities, but both of their shots were just off target of the net.
“If I don’t finish, it just makes me want to work that much harder and get the next one,” Hyland said. “I think that’s how a lot of players are.”
Maranacook has had early struggles offensively during the season, but have come around as of late.
“It’s just starting to click,” Hyland said. “It’s a good time for it to start clicking.”
Mt. Abram did well to fight off the offensive onslaught by the Black Bears, but because of the offensive pressure, the Roadrunners could not truly mount an offensive attack. Liz D’Angelo needed one save to earn the shutout for Maranacook.
“That’s not a bad ballgame,” Mt. Abram coach Marc Keller said. “I was happy with the way they played. (Maranacook) is a good club, they have lots of experience. They work the ball pretty well and have girls up front that can score.”
The game was a bit of a reward for the Roadrunners, a team full of youth that surprised many with their trip to the postseason.
“My expectations were a building year,” Keller said. “To even have a playoff game this year shows the dedication and commitment and hard work that they put in every single day. We took it half by half and just improved every time we took the field.”
Dave Dyer — 621-5639
ddyer@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @Dave_Dyer
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