CUMBERLAND—Greely’s boys’ soccer team has been at its best against top competition this fall and Thursday evening at Glenn Hutchins Field, the Rangers didn’t put a lot of shots on frame against visiting rival Cape Elizabeth, but they made the most of them en route to a key late-season victory.
While the Capers carried play for a majority of the first half, Greely struck first, as junior Owen Piesik scored in the 15th minute.
While Cape Elizabeth answered a minute later, when junior Tully Haydar scored off a corner kick, the Rangers went ahead to stay with 16:23 left in the half, as junior Bez Mendelsohn buried a penalty kick.
Greely then started the second half in backbreaking fashion, as senior Aaron Park scored just 15 seconds in.
Mendelsohn added another goal off a penalty kick with 33:32 remaining and the Rangers, who scored on four of six shots on frame, went on to a critical 4-1 victory.
Greely, which suffered a painful loss at York two nights prior, improved to 7-3-1 and in the process, dropped the Capers to 6-3-1.
“Cape is just loaded,” said Mike Andreasen, the Rangers’ longtime coach. “This was big for seeding. It was nice to bounce back because we want to be an elite team and elite teams don’t take games off. We have to be consistent.”
Every game is critical
With Yarmouth seemingly in command of the top spot in Class B South, Cape Elizabeth and Greely are hoping to finish as high as possible in the standings, as the region is as deep this year as it’s been in recent memory.
The Capers, who fell one goal shy of an elusive regional championship last fall, started out by defeating host York (4-0) and Lake Region (9-1), then edging visiting Greely (2-1), before tying visiting Freeport (2-2) and losing at home to Yarmouth (4-1). Cape Elizabeth then beat visiting Fryeburg Academy (4-2), but lost at home to York (1-0), before blanking visiting Gray-New Gloucester (5-0) and earning a hard-fought 1-0 victory at reigning Class A state champion Brunswick last Friday.
Greely started the season in fine style with a 2-0 home win over Yarmouth and then, the Rangers enjoyed a 2-1 win at Fryeburg Academy. After suffering a 2-1 setback at Cape Elizabeth, the Rangers blanked visiting Waynflete (3-0), the four-time Class C champion, played visiting Freeport to a scoreless draw, then prevailed at Poland, 4-0. After losing at Yarmouth (1-0), Greely blanked visiting Lake Region (7-0) and York (2-0), but Tuesday, lost at York (2-1), on a goal with just over two minutes left in regulation.
In the teams’ first meeting Sept. 7, senior Keegan Lathrop’s goal late in the first half was the difference. Senior Sam Cochran also scored for the Capers.
Thursday, playing in dense fog, Cape Elizabeth looked to sweep Greely for the second year in a row and make it five straight in the series, but instead, the Rangers made another strong statement.
The Capers came out strong and Cochran had a couple chances to generate a lead on a free kick, but after he sent the first one wide, the second, a low bid, was snared by Greely sophomore goalkeeper Landon Dominski.
In the 11th minute, senior Samuel Kim attempted the Rangers’ first shot and sent it just high.
Greely’s next chance resulted in a goal.
With 25:55 on the clock, senior Sam Dudek sent the ball into the box and Piesik beat Cape Elizabeth senior goalkeeper Raef Curran to it before hammering it home for a 1-0 advantage.
Which lasted all of 75 seconds.
At the other end, the Capers earned a corner kick and senior Alex van Huystee served it in to the near post, where Haydar was waiting to finish.
With 16:23 remaining, Piesik was tripped up in the box and much to Cape Elizabeth’s chagrin, a penalty kick was awarded to the Rangers.
Mendelsohn did the honors, stepping to the line and firing a shot into the net to put Greely on top for good, 2-1.
“I was just making sure I was in the zone since the goalie was talking to me,” Mendelsohn said.
Late in the half, Dominski punched away a Haydar shot, van Huystee shot wide, then van Huystee headed a free kick from senior Rory O’Grady wide before Cochran sent a blast just high.
After Curran dove to rob Kim, the game went to the break with the home team clinging to a one-goal advantage.
And in the blink of an eye at the start of the second half, Greely got some breathing room.
The ball came into the box immediately, was knocked around and came up top to Park, who fired it with his left foot to the left of Curran and in to make it 3-1.
“I just saw the ball bounce out to me and I thought I needed to take a touch, do a good finish and celebrate with the team,” Park said. “I think we’d been working hard and we deserved it.”
“We knew we needed to get that next goal,” Mendelsohn said. “If it was 2-2, it would have been a whole different game and all the pressure would have been back on us. There was so much passion from the boys. We pressed hard and that created that goal.”
“Aaron took a touch, saw where the goalie was and he finished,” Andreasen added. “It’s funny, the halftime play we do, we did it a couple years ago against Cape and scored in seven seconds and today, we did the same play and scored in 15.”
Park, who played Academy soccer the past three seasons, has been a key player this fall for the Rangers.
“It’s been like running it back to middle school,” Park said. “Playing with my best friends, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
“Aaron’s a special talent,” said Mendelsohn. “He brings so much energy to practice and games. We’re glad to have him.”
“What I love about Aaron is he doesn’t act like he’s a savior,” added Andreasen.
Cape Elizabeth coach Ben Raymond wasn’t sure what had ensued at the start of the half, only that he didn’t like it.
“That’s just not ideal,” Raymond said. “It looked like one of our guys took it off the chest, then it came to them, someone put it in, someone cleared it out, then it rolled right to someone on their team. It is what it is.”
Any remaining doubt was dispelled with 33:32 to play, as after junior Owen Partridge was fouled in the box off a corner kick, the Rangers earned another PK and again Mendelsohn did the honors.
This time, Curran guessed correctly and dove to his right, but Mendelsohn struck the ball well enough that he couldn’t reach it and the score was 4-1.
“It’s tough because the goalie already knew where I went the first time, so it makes that much harder,” Mendelsohn said. “I put it in the same place, but with more power.”
“Bez is amazing,” Park said. “He’s fast, he’s agile. He’s the striker any team would want to have.”
“Bez is racking up goals,” Andreasen added. “He clears his brain and goes out there and kicks the ball where a lot of kids get nervous. I was worried about the second kick, but that was better. My internal thinking was if he missed the shot, Cape would come back harder and we’d have a tough time holding on, but he made it and we were good.”
After Curran dove to rob Park’s quest for a second goal, the Capers hoped to answer, but Cochran headed a free kick wide, then Cochran spun and shot wide.
Greely then closed it out and celebrated its 4-1 victory.
“We practiced hard all week,” Park said. “We lost to York Tuesday, so we were looking to bounce back. We were disappointed with that loss. We knew this game would be super-important.”
“It’s big for us because now we have Heal Points out of everybody on our schedule so far,” Andreasen said. “We go through periods of lulls and we did today in the first half. We do seem to get it back most games.”
The Rangers had a 6-4 edge in shots on frame, got three saves from Dominski and had a 6-5 advantage in corner kicks.
Curran stopped two shots for Cape Elizabeth.
“First half, we played pretty well,” Raymond said. “We had plenty of possession, but we weren’t very dangerous. That’s kind of our thing. We did a lot of nice things, but we weren’t as dangerous as we needed to be. That’s something we need to work on and we’ll continue to work on.
“We’ve got to get into a groove, but it’s tough without having the same guys over and over again. We’re still dealing with some injuries and it affects us more than we think. Greely’s a good team. They’re competitive, they worked hard and they’re fast. They played really well today and I think they definitely outworked us in the second half.”
Room to improve
Cape Elizabeth (now sixth in the Class B South Heals) hosts Waynflete Saturday, then visits Poland, welcomes Freeport and finishes with a pivotal showdown at Yarmouth Oct. 16.
“If we won tonight, we’d jump to 2, but now, we’ll probably be traveling the entire playoffs,” Raymond said. “We talked about that, but maybe it’s too much pressure. I think we need to continue to get everybody healthy. We have to be more dangerous in the final third. Our possession is really good, but our final balls are a little late or not on target. Our timing isn’t quite there. We’re still working guys in. Other guys have had lot of opportunity. We’ll have a deep group when we make a run in the playoffs.”
Greely (third in Class B South) returns to action Tuesday of next week at Gray-New Gloucester. The Rangers have a huge home test next Friday against Class C South power Mt. Abram, then they close at Wells.
“We have to work on little things in practice and make sure those things convert into games,” Mendelsohn said. “I like our chances.”
“No matter what the score is, we have to keep the same intensity,” said Park. “We have to bring it in practice every single day. We know what we can do if we play our game.”
“We need consistent scoring,” Andreasen added. “We have to make sure our depth can help us. We’re in better position than usual. Better than last year. Mt. Abram will be big for us because they’re undefeated. We could win out and if we do, I hope we finish 2 or 3. I do think the top two teams are Yarmouth and Cape. They were last year and they probably are this year. The fact we beat them both once shows we’re right there.”
Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. For game updates and links to game stories, follow him on Threads: @foresports2023
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