SOUTH CHINA — Erskine Academy boys soccer coach Phil Hubbard didn’t dwell too long on his 100th career victory Tuesday, a 3-0 win against Leavitt.

He’s more concerned with getting his team prepared for the stretch run into the postseason. Some of his players, however, thought it was pretty neat.

“Nothing but congratulations to him,” said Erskine senior Josh Reed, who scored the game’s first goal.

“I love him. He’s been my coach since I was this big,” Reed added, extending his arm about waist high.

The Eagles are 6-3 in Class B North with five games remaining in the regular season, including a date at home against unbeaten Maranacook on Oct. 13. They hit a lull at mid-season, dropping consecutive games to Oceanside, Winslow and Maranacook, all of them close.

“It’s the mid-season, we’ve got a little ‘The system’s there, they just didn’t execute the way they’re supposed to execute’ tired legs,” Hubbard said. “We needed a win today just because we’ve had some tough losses along the way.”

Leavitt (3-5-1) came out strong and controlled the first couple of minutes. The Hornets nearly scored a goal when ‘keeper Takoda McGraw was drawn out of position, leaving an open net. But defender Chance Reed was there to make a crucial save. After that it was all Eagles. They kept the ball pinned in Leavitt’s end of the field and applied big-time pressure on its defense and goalkeeper Lucas Perry.

Josh Reed put his team on the board with just under six minutes gone when he took a pass from Trevor Hubbard, dribbled around two defenders and chipped the ball into an open corner.

“He’s a strong player, he gets to a lot of balls,” Coach Hubbard said of Josh Reed. “He played outside full last year and moved up to stopper and center mid.”

Perry, who finished with 12 saves, kept his team alive with a couple of beauties against the Eagles, the best a screamer from 12 yards off the foot of Jake Suga. The pressure eventually caught up to Perry and the defense, though. Junior Grayson Petty made it 2-0 with a header at the far post set up by a long cross from the right side by Hoang Barnett.

The Eagles kept the pressure on and scored one minute later, this time with Raymond Weymouth finishing a pass from Nate Howard.

The Hornets, who lost 4-0 to Erskine earlier this year in Turner, played a much stronger second half.

“In the first half, they were just beating us to all the balls,” Leavitt coach Isaiah Davis said. “They were working harder than us. We knew going in they were a little more skilled than us but they shouldn’t be three goals in a half more than us.”

McGraw (two saves) wasn’t called upon for his first one until there were eight minutes gone in the second half. The Hornets missed their best scoring chance of the game when Brian Hewitt whistled a shot wide of an open goal with six minutes left.

“We’re kind of hoping that was our low,” Reed said of Erskine’s losing streak. “We’re working toward the higher end now.”

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