For nearly 60 minutes Tuesday, South Portland’s girls soccer team stayed close to visiting Scarborough, giving the top-ranked Red Storm a little scare.
“(I was) very nervous,” said Scarborough fullback Libby Brackett. “I have confidence in my team, but it was a little shaky because I knew South Portland could come back. They’re a very strong team.”
The Red Storm (12-1-0) are stronger, however, and two quick goals midway through the second half helped them put away the Red Riots, 5-1, on a chilly night at Martin Stadium.
Less than 30 seconds into the contest the Storm took the lead on a breakaway goal by Liz Houle, and it looked as though the outcome would be decided quickly, as the action stayed in the South Portland end.
But minutes later Riots keeper Jackie Rice denied Houle on a penalty kick and Nikki Desjardins hit the crossbar. The two Scarborough forwards continued to lead offensive attacks and Rice made several stops, but the hosts appeared to weather the early barrage down just a goal.
Then, in the middle of the period, Amanda Daudelin made it a two-goal margin, but at that point the momentum seemed to shift and the play moved from end to end.
At the 32:40 mark, Riots forward Christina Aceto took a pass from midfielder Cassie Lyons, slipped through a pair of defenders to the left of Red Storm keeper Jaymie Coulston and kicked the ball across and in, giving life to her team.
“With a 2-0 deficit we needed something to pick us up,” Aceto said. “You don’t get a lot of chances against a team like Scarborough. I knew I had a strong sweeper on my left, so I just tried to put my shoulder into her to create enough space to go into a corner.”
For the rest of the first half and well into the second, both teams banged and bumped each other, South Portland (7-4-2) desperately trying to tie the score, as if understanding that the sleeping giant would awake at any moment.
“The game could have been over in the first 15 minutes, but to their credit they hung in there,” said Red Storm coach Mike Farley. “Their goalkeeper made a couple of big saves, we missed a couple and they battled us for the whole first half. It was a game, and 20 minutes into the second half it was still a game, but then we really started to put the pressure on them.”
That pressure resulted in goals by Bri Jordan and Devon Leighton midway through the period, which made the score 4-1, effectively ending the Riots upset ambitions.
“We had a good halftime talk and in the second half we knew we had to get it done early,” said Jordan. “We were talking about how their defense was stretched out and had holes on the far side, and when they got it over to me, I had plenty of space to take my time and set up for a shot and place it.”
The action then shifted to the South Portland end and Houle added her second goal with 12:28 remaining to end the scoring.
“It was a little bit of nerves and a lack of communication,” Rice said. “We just didn’t come ready to play.”
“We’re a young team. We only have three seniors,” said Aceto. “We need to come out with our heads up and keep our freshman and sophomores confident because we get down when we make a few mistakes in a row. We’ve just got to pick ourselves up.”
Still, with one game to go – today (Oct. 13) at Windham – the Riots are in the eighth slot in the Heal point standings and will play a preliminary round game on Oct. 18.
Scarborough – which ends its regular season today, hosting Massabesic – will get a bye in the first round and play a quarterfinal match on Oct. 21. The expectations are high.
“I hope we’re getting to that level where we’re going to play consistently for the full 80 minutes,” Farley said, “because if we do, we’re a very dangerous team.”
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