PORTLAND – Going into Friday’s contest the Scarborough girls soccer team hadn’t allowed a goal in its first four games of the season, while Cheverus had tallied a remarkable 32 goals in its own first four.
As it would turn out, the irresistible force was no match for the immovable object.
The Red Storm bested the Stags in an early-season matchup of unbeatens, scoring three second-half goals and keeping another clean sheet in a 3-0 victory. In a game that saw very little time and space offered to anyone on the ball, Scarborough coach Mike Fairly was happy with the way his team rose to the occasion.
“I thought it was a really good job of us just sort of gutting out a win. In this game you had no time to do anything,” he said. “You were on your back, everybody’s pushing around, it was a good physical game and it always is against Cheverus.”
After an even first half that saw just two shots on goal for each side, the game sprang to life three minutes into the second when Scarborough’s Taylor Leborgne played a long ball behind the Cheverus defense.
Red Storm forward Jessica Meader beat two Stags defenders to the ball and was tripped trying to round outrushing goalkeeper Mikayla Mayberry, winning a penalty.
“It was kind of a play that we weren’t really expecting to get much out of. Jess just went really hard and pressured the defense and came out with the ball and ended up getting tripped up,” Scarborough forward Sarah Martens said. “That really showed us that we need to go hard and that anything can happen when we do.”
While Scarborough usually lets the player who gets fouled take the penalty, Meader had to leave the game with an ankle injury, leaving Martens to take the pressure kick. The senior coolly stepped to the spot and slotted into the right corner past a sprawling Mayberry for a 1-0 lead.
“I was just trying to fake the goalie out,” Martens said. “I was looking to the left and I knew I was going to the right the whole time. But you never really know what the goalie’s going to think so it’s kind of hit or miss. I just had to be confident in what I was doing and whenever you’re confident it turns out to be pretty good.”
The momentum was now firmly in the Scarborough’s corner as the game started to shift, and the Storm had their second 14 minutes later when Sam Sparda pounded a free kick on goal from just outside the Cheverus box.
Mayberry got a fist to the ball and pushed it off the cross bar, but Ashley Gleason was there to head in the rebound for a 2-0 lead. Scarborough added a late insurance goal with 6:33 to play when a Hadlee Yescott shot from just inside the box got past Mayberry, and what had been a close-fought game ended in a small route.
“Once we get our momentum going we keep going strong all the way,” Martens said. “Once we figure out where to play and once we get our chemistry game going there’s no team that can really hang on to us because we all work so well together, and once we just get going everyone just works so hard to keep it up.”
While the Scarborough attack was able to find a way to the back of the net, Cheverus’ high-powered attack found it rough going as Storm goalkeeper Sydney Martin had to make just six saves in net. Stags star Abby Maker, who had 15 goals in just four games coming in, was blanketed all game by centerbacks Maria Philbrick and Ainsley Jamieson before leaving late in the game with a right ankle injury.
“We just wanted to play our game,” Jamieson said of defending Marker. “She’s a really aggressive player and she definitely knows where to play the ball. One of my goals for the game is to just try to contain her and stay in front of her because she’s really, really good.”
The Red Storm defense has now played 400 minutes this season without being scored on, a feat that Fairley attributes not to just any individual talent or scheme, but the unit as a whole.
“They do a great job team defending,” he said. “Every time someone got beat and the player got turned and they were looking to get a shot off, the next player was right there to block that shot. It’s not just one player, the four of them and the couple players who come of the bench do a great job covering for each other and really challenging for that second ball.”
Cheverus defender Nicole Pineau puts her foot into it to deny Scarborough forward Sarah Martens in the first half Friday in Portland. Martens scored the Red Storm’s first goal on a penalty kick as they went on to defeat the Stags 3-0 to remain unbeaten. (Staff photos by Cameron Dunbar)
Scarborough midfielder Taylor Leborgne kicks a cross that would result in a penalty kick as forward Jessica Meader got on to the end of the pass and was hauled down in the box by Cheverus goalkeeper Mikayla Mayberry. Sarah Martens would convert the penalty for Scarborough’s first goal of the game as the Red Storm went on to defeat the Stags 3-0 to remain unbeaten.
Scarborough forward Sarah Martens and Cheverus midfielder Darby Rawcliffe contest the ball inside the Cheverus box in the first half.
Scarborough forward Sarah Martens puts a shot on goal as Cheverus midfielder Eden Monsen puts on pressure on her in the first half.
Cheverus goalkeeper Mikayla Mayberry looks back at the ball after failing to stop Sarah Martens’ penalty kick early in the second half Friday in Portland.
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