WINSLOW — Mt. View junior James Philbrick wasn’t sure what the difference was between the Mustangs’ regular season game with Winslow and the playoff rematch with the Black Raiders on Wednesday. But Mt. View coach Chris Hink was pretty sure he knew what was different.
“Eighty minutes, working their tail off,” Hink said. “That’s the difference. You can’t let down. Playoff situation, any game. You want to go out there and play well, you have to play for 80 minutes. We haven’t been doing that lately, and they put together a complete game today.”
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Fifth-ranked Mt. View scored three goals in the first half, including two by Philbrick, and they held up for a 3-0 victory over No. 4 Winslow in an Eastern B boys soccer quarterfinal at Kennebec Savings Bank Field.
Mt. View (13-3-0) had lost to Winslow 3-2 when the teams met two weeks ago. For this game, Winslow coach Carrie Larrabee decided to move starting goalkeeper MacKenzie Michaud to the midfield and started freshman Alex Berard in goal.
“We were looking for just one more really strong player on the field that would help us with some offensive opportunities,” Larrabee said. “As a young goalie, Berard’s really proven himself and done a great job, and MacKenzie’s really one of the strongest field players that we have.”
“We saw it, and we adjusted quickly,” Hink said. “We knew that he would help them out in the field. It was just a matter of, make sure we knew where he was and what he was going to do.”
Philbrick got his first goal 4:01 into the game when he converted a pass from Trevor Diemer. The second goal came with 21:25 left in the half. Jack Simpson carried the ball down the left sideline and sent a beautiful pass ahead to Philbrick, who sent the ball inside the left post.
“From that (first) goal, we just got better,” Hink said. “The gears kicked in, if you will. The boys really stepped it up after that. Sometimes you get a goal, you think you’re good, you sit back on your heels — not today. These boys just took it to the next level.”
The Mustangs made it 3-0 about eight minutes later on Tim Bennett’s unassisted goal. Berard also made back-to-back hand saves to deny Aaron Elkins and Dustin McHugh in the final seconds of the game.
Mt. View keeper Chris Montminy had nine saves, and Winslow’s best chance came with nine minutes left in the game. Pierce Ducker headed a pass to Finn Ducker, whose header went off the crossbar.
Philbrick said Mt. View didn’t make any major defensive adjustments from the teams’ last meeting.
“We just moved some players around and kept pushing forward,” he said.
Larrabee, who is also the athletic director at Winslow, said she would continue to coach the boys soccer team.
“I think we’ve really turned our program around in the last three years,” Larrabee said. “We’ve made the playoffs every year, continued to grow. We have a lot of upcoming underclassmen that played key roles this year, and we’re looking forward to getting those kids back and just continuing to build the program.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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