FARMINGDALE — Two of the top three boys soccer teams in the Mountain Valley Conference. Two of the top four teams in the Class C South standings. A combined unbeaten streak of 18 straight games entering the week.

It would have been impossible to see this coming.

Hall-Dale senior striker Tyler Nadeau scored a career-high four goals — all in the first 19 minutes of the match — and the host Bulldogs tore visiting Mt. Abram apart en route to a 6-0 win Tuesday afternoon at Simmons Field.

Hall-Dale (11-1-0) ran its winning streak to nine straight games, while Mt. Abram’s 10-game unbeaten stretch came to a crashing halt.

“I was completely shocked,” Hall-Dale coach Andy Haskell said.

“I was extremely disappointed. Very flat, very nonchalant,” Mt. Abram coach Darren Allen offered.

Even the players on the pitch were shocked. Nadeau nearly put the Bulldogs in the goal column just a few seconds after the opening whistle, but his shot from only two yards out clipped the outside of the left goal post.

It would have been easy for him to take that as a bad omen of things to come.

“A chance early on like that,” Nadeau said, “I just took it as there would be many more chances to come.”

There were, and the Hall-Dale attack found seemingly every one of them — quickly and decisively.

The Bulldogs took the lead through Nadeau in the second minute. He scored again in the ninth minute for a 2-0 lead, and then added two more goals two minutes apart to open a 4-0 lead before the first half was 20 minutes old.

All four of Nadeau’s goals came in a span of 17 minutes.

“I think we had some extra motivation, and we’re playing really well,” Nadeau said. “This was kind of a play-in game to the MVC championship. We knew we had to win.”

“We just attacked the channels really well, and Tyler just really got rolling,” Haskell said. “The last few games, he’s just been spot on and playing like a top-level player.”

By the time senior Brendan McKenzie made it a 5-0 scoreline in the 38th minute, the game had long since been decided — especially with a Hall-Dale defense that’s now posted eight shutouts this season, allowing only three goals in its last nine games in all.

Alec Byron capped the scoring in the 54th minute, not long after which the Bulldogs had pulled their entire Starting XI in favor of junior varsity players.

Mt. Abram followed suit soon after.

“Maybe this is a good wakeup call for us,” Allen said. “My gut told me I wanted to go with a more conservative lineup today, and I didn’t. … I don’t think we ever got off the bus today. Maybe I talked the game up too much. These kids have never played in a huge game in high school before. It’s a good butt-whooping and a good lesson. The key is how we react from here.”

The Bulldogs have spent the bulk of the season fine-tuning their attacking game, and Nadeau says the team’s mental approach has caught up to its tactical one.

“Our mentality has changed,” Nadeau said. “We work extra hard. We’ve had away games we’ve worked hard in. Teams know what we’re doing now, so we have to work extra hard.”

Travis Barrett — 621-5621

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TBarrettGWC

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