HAMPDEN — It looked like another turning point. It surely wouldn’t have been the first on this evening.
But when Messalonskee standout forward Nate DelGiudice was given a yellow card and had to sit on the bench for 10 minutes, the Eagles decided to stand the turning point on its head.
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Just 80 seconds later, the fired-up Eagles took the lead for good on Chris Hall’s penalty kick, and Messalonskee held on to defeat Hampden Academy 3-2 in the Eastern Maine Class A boys soccer championship game Wednesday at the Weatherbee Complex.
“As soon as I saw it, I knew it. I went straight for it. I wanted that PK,” a breathless Hall said after the game. “I wanted to get that goal and put it in for Nate, and Coach (John) DelGiudice. I did it for him. I did it for this team. I did it for the program.”
It was the first regional title for No. 4 Messalonskee (13-2-2), which will play in Saturday’s Class A state championship game at Falmouth High School. No. 6 Hampden, which defeated Messalonskee 1-0 on the same field two months earlier, finishes at 12-4-1.
DelGiudice, Messalonskee’s leading scorer, was assessed the yellow card with 10:15 to play in regulation and the score tied at 2. DelGiudice was baffled about the call after the game.
“Apparently, I did something over by their 18 (yard line),” DelGiudice said. “I’m not real sure what happened.”
But with 8:55 left, the Broncos were called for a hand ball while trying to defend Messalonskee forward Alex Shatskov. Hall buried a low shot under Hampden goalkeeper Logan Poirier, and the Eagles had their first lead.
“You hate to have a game decided on a penalty kick, but that’s the breaks, sometimes,” Hampden coach Josh Stevens said. “I (was) too far away to actually see it. I’m going to take his word for it. He’s one of the better referees around, so if he says it was a hand ball, it was a hand ball.”
Unlike earlier in the game, Messalonskee didn’t have any close calls after taking the lead. The Eagles stayed cohesive without DelGiudice and mainly controlled the action until the final buzzer.
“We really stepped up and used that to go forward in our play,” Hall said. “With him off the field, we knew that we had to keep working harder, because he’s such a force out there. We had to make up his spot, and we did that. The guys that came on for him really did well, and I’m proud of them.”
Each team had chances for several goals in the first half. The Broncos were on fire over the first eight minutes and took the lead when Ben Clark headed in a corner kick by Kevin Oliver. Hampden also just missed a goal two other times, once when Clark hit the right post and again when Messalonskee keeper Zach Sutherland came out to stuff Clark and Eagles back Kevin McCarthy headed the ball away.
Messalonskee also had some near-misses — Omsberg’s header went barely wide left and Jarrod Simpson had his header go off the crossbar — so the score remained 1-0 at halftime.
While there was a lot of action in the first half, the action picked up. First, Omsberg fed DelGiudice, who flipped a shot over Poirier to tie the score at 1 just 3:11 into the second half. Just 1:04 later, Hamdpen was on top again, as Oliver scored from the 10-yard line on the far right side.
Omsberg also set up Messalonskee’s tying goal, as he saw Hall release and find himself alone. Omsberg thrust his arm in the air in triumph before Hall even took the shot, which went inside the left post to tie the score at 2 with 26:21 left.
“Tonight, I think the kids just weren’t going to be denied,” Messalonskee coach Tom Sheridan said. “(Hampden) played a hell of a game, too, but I think that the pressure we put on their defense eventually broke them down.”
Still, Hampden had a few chances, and, as it turned out, Sutherland helped save the day for the Eagles with less than 12 minutes to go and the score still tied. Clark had a free kick from about 30 yards out near the left sideline, and Sutherland had to leap to knock the ball away with both hands.
Messalonskee still has one game left, and that will come after the Eagles knocked off the second, third and fourth seeds in the Eastern A tournament.
“I think we had a chip on our shoulder going into the playoffs,” Sheridan said. “We knew we were a six seed, but we thought we were much better than a six seed.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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