The Scarborough boys controlled the ball so well Tuesday night, they allowed Sanford’s soccer team very little offensive playing time, and barely a shot. Throughout most of the game, the Red Storm was busy setting up its own offensive attacks. Four of those plays produced goals during a 4-0, never-in-doubt domination of a team coming off a pair of wins.
The victory was the seventh straight for the Scarborough boys since the team lost a heartbreaking 2-1 game at Gorham on September 6. That loss was a wake-up call, say Scarborough’s players, and they haven’t fallen back asleep since.
“We realized after the Gorham game that we needed to step it up,” said senior back Taylor Sabo. “And since then we’ve had additions and we’re definitely working harder.”
Sabo keys a backfield that has been checking almost every offense it’s seen of late. The Red Storm has allowed only two goals in its last six games. That’s four shutouts for goalie Derek Poulin over that span, five for the season.
Scarborough has three shutouts in a row since last Thursday, when Eddie Jones and Bennett scored in a 2-0 win over Westbrook. Saturday Brent Mayo scored twice and Chad Decker once in a 3-0 win over Marshwood.
And offensively, the Scarborough boys are ever-improving on finding the open man.
“We’ve been working on moving the ball, and moving our feet a little better,” said junior forward Mayo, who had a goal and an assist against Sanford. “We’ve been getting some good runs and going to the net better.”
Mayo’s goal was the capper for the evening, coming with just under 11 minutes to play. The attack started when midfielder Pierre Soubrier lobbed the ball across the crease in front of the net and Jason Philbrick deflected it to Mayo, who hit it in from close range.
Such coordination was not uncommon throughout the night for Scarborough. And much of the credit for keeping the ball in Red Storm control goes to Soubrier, who consistently got to loose balls before Sanford’s players and moved it to the forwards in a variety of ways.
Scarborough played pressure offense right from the start, but didn’t get its first score until 29 seconds before halftime, when Dana Bennett left-footed a rebound into the net after Sanford goalie Brian Pearsall’s initial save.
Mayo’s pass set up a goal by Jeff Soules less than five minutes into the second half for Scarborough’s second goal. And with 23:36 left in the game, Philbrick fed Drew Kirstein nicely on his goal from inside ten yards, to make it 3-0.
Sanford, which was coming off wins over Deering and Massabesic, fell to 2-6 with the loss. Scarborough improved to 8-1 with the win, heading into a game at Cheverus today (Thursday, at 4 p.m.)
Acknowledging the improvement, Scarborough coach Mark Diaz believes the best is yet to come for his team.
“We’re improving,” said Diaz. “We’ve played a lot better intensity-wise since (the Gorham game). Gorham is a real good team, but we didn’t feel we gave it our best. They outplayed us and we wanted to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
“The last three or four games we’ve moved the ball nicely and have been very unselfish,” he said. “But we still have a ways to go if we’re going to do what we want to do. We have to work harder, play harder. We’re not aggressive enough on defense. We need to be better in the air and go after the ball stronger.”
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