BRUNSWICK — Attention to detail and some timely saves helped the Brunswick High School boys soccer team to a 4-0 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference win Friday over the Edward Little Red Eddies.
The Dragons flipped the script on Edward Little, after the Red Eddies took an early-season September meeting by a 5-1 score in Auburn.
Brunswick entered the match fifth in the Class A North Heal Point Standings, with EL right behind the Dragons in sixth. It’s the fourth consecutive win for a Brunswick group that is starting to come together according to coach Mark Roma.
“This is a special team,” said Roma. “It’s was hard to get them to see that early in the season but this is really a special group”
EL controlled play early and took the first shot of the game as Wol Maiwen’s left-footed strike went sailing over the bar. Maiwen continued to cause problems for Brunswick as his cross was knocked down with a hand ball inside the box.
As a result, the Red Eddies received a penalty kick just 14 minutes into the game. In danger of falling behind again to the Red Eddies, Brunswick goalkeeper Liam Hemberger bailed his team out. Christian Beliveau tried to beat Hemberger low to his left, but the keeper grabbed momentum for the Dragons with a diving save.
“That changed the game” said Roma. “ If they score there you’re fighting from behind and the belief starts to go away.”
“It gave us a lot of momentum,” said Hemberger, who was called on to make another save, this time from long range before the Dragon offense started to create chances.
With just over 20 minutes remaining in the first half, the Dragons struck on a corner kick. Noah Green’s cross went across the face of the goal to find Luke Cheseldine on the back post to head home the goal.
EL turned up the pressure after the Brunswick goal. Hemberger was up to the challenge, saving a Chase Martin header before the half to preserve the lead. Brunswick limited the Red Eddie chances in the second half and turned up the pressure at the other end of the field. The Brunswick defense was quick to shut down EL attacks.
“They did a great job,” said Hemberger. “There wasn’t much action at my end in the second half.”
The Dragons doubled their lead a little over five minutes into the second half. Everett Horch found open space down the wing and his low cross found Cheseldine for his second goal of the game.
Brunswick took advantage of another corner to extend the lead to 3-0, with Emmet Taub’s cross finding the back of the net through a mass of players. The set pieces made the difference in the win this time for Brunswick.
“That was a focus for us all week,” said Roma. “We knew we had to be better, I think they had three goals off set pieces last time, number four (Maiwen) is a really good player in the air.”
“We usually pride ourselves on set pieces,” said EL coach Tim Mains. “It was really a complete 180 from the first game.”
The Dragons added another goal late as Horch followed up a Lane Foushee shot, putting the rebound home for a 4-0 lead.
The Dragons improved to 5-4-2, with an impressive 24 goals scored on their current four-game streak. Brunswick hosts Camden Hills on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
EL fell to 5-4.
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