Sports Reporter
The Presque Isle Wildcats faced one of their toughest regular-season opponents in Ellsworth and battled the Eagles to a tie on the road. Coupled with a win over Fort Kent two nights earlier, the Wildcats are still undefeated early on.
Ashland continued to be impressive, with shutout victories over Van Buren and Washburn improving its record to 5-1, while Central Aroostook had a quiet week with just one game, but made the most of it with a rout of Easton and are now an impressive 8-2 on the campaign.
The following is a recap of games played through Monday, Sept. 14.
Ashland 4, Washburn 0 — At Presque Isle Monday, Kenny Tarr scored twice, while Casey Cobb added a goal and an assist and Taylor Condon tallied a goal as Ashland blanked the Beavers.
Lucas Hafford also had an assist, while goalie Bobby Gardner came up with his first save of the season by saving six of eight shots.
Connor Fitzpatrick, Washburn’s goalie, had 15 saves on 19 shots.
Wisdom 8, Fort Fairfield 2 – At Fort Fairfield Monday, four goals by Curtis Picard was more than enough as Wisdom trounced the host Tigers. Josh Churchill and Travis Noyes each scored for Fort Fairfield, with Derek Dufour collecting an assist. Chris Weeks saved 13 of 22 shots in goal for the Tigers.
Presque Isle 1, Ellsworth 1 – At Ellsworth Saturday, the Wildcats received a stellar effort in goal from Dillion Kingsbury, who made numerous great saves to preserve a tie against the always-strong Eagles.
Three sophomores teamed up for PI’s only goal, as Riley Norton’s throw-in to Isaac Lajoie was skipped to Wilder York, who headed the ball into the back of the net.
Kingsbury had 13 saves in the contest, while coach Scott Young also credited Matt Chasse and Nate Ackerson for outstanding defensive jobs against Ellsworth’s top two scorers.
Central Aroostook 8, Easton 2 – At Mars Hill Friday, Garrett Stiles, Spencer Stetson and Dan Brewer led the way with two goals apiece as the Panthers won for the eighth time against just two losses.
Brendan York and Logan Thomas were the other goal scorers for CA.
Jonah Bacon and Corey White had Easton’s goals.
Ross Grass and Tyler Rusby collaborated for the goalie chores for the Panthers and had six saves on 15 shots. Easton goalkeepers Cody Tompkins and Jared Hafford combined for four saves.
Southern Aroostook 7, Washburn 3 – At Dyer Brook Friday, Dakota Sleeper registered a hat trick as the Warriors won convincingly.
Jordan McLaughlin scored a hat trick of his own to account for the Beavers’ scoring.
Madawaska 5, Fort Fairfield 0 – At Fort Fairfield Thursday, the Tigers kept it close for a little over a half, but the Class C power took over and gained the shutout.
“We were up against a very skilled opponent,” said FF coach John Ala, “but in the first half we played very hard and were able to put pressure on the ball. I was very pleased with the amount of effort and focus our team invested defensively.”
Aaron Marquis scored the game’s only goal of the first half to put the Owls on the board, and then Jeff Cyr made it 2-0 10 minutes into the second.
“After the second goal scored and fatigue set in, we weren’t able to keep up our intensity,” Ala said, “but I was proud of our team … we gave it everything we had.”
Presque Isle 2, Fort Kent 1 — At Presque Isle Thursday evening, Presque Isle’s Josh Allen broke a 1-1 tie with 13:17 to play when he converted a corner kick from Nathaniel Postell. Allen soared into the air to receive the ball from Postell and headed it into upper left corner of the net for the eventual game winner.
“It was just like we practice it,” Young said. “It was a very nice goal.”
Kingsbury put Presque Isle on the board first when he scored on a penalty kick with 12:21 to play in the first half. “He has proven in practices and scrimmages that he is our penalty kick taker,” Young said.
Fort Kent got on the scoreboard with 26:27 to play in the second half as Thomas Levesque scored on a breakaway.
Kingsbury had four saves on six shots for the Wildcats, while Brandon Hartt had 12 saves on 20 shots for the Warriors.
“Our backs were very organized the entire game and they gave our offense plenty of opportunities,” Young said.
Washburn 3, Easton 2 – At Washburn last Wednesday, Justin Farley scored an unassisted goal with 14 minutes remaining in the match as the Beavers upended the Bears.
McLaughlin opened the scoring for the Beavers by converting a Chris Farley assist. Easton took the lead on goals by Holden Turner and Corey White before Washburn rallied to tie the game late in the first half.
Ashland 1, Van Buren 0 – At Van Buren last Tuesday, Tarr scored the only goal of the game off a Royce MacDonald assist 12 minutes into the second half as the Hornets won the defensive battle.
Ashland was playing without the services of two starters, but freshman J. J. D’Ozier stepped in as goalie and saves three of six shots for the shutout.
“This was a huge win for us,” said Ashland coach Kevin Paradis. “Coach [Steve] Lapierre’s [Van Buren] teams always play great defense.”
Van Buren goalie Marc Lajoie made eight saves on 15 shots to help keep his team close.
Easton 11, East Grand 1 – At Easton last Tuesday, six goals by White helped lift the Bears to the lopsided victory. Turner scored four times and also had two assists, while Zach Clark had the team’s other goal. Easton put 47 shots on goal in the contest.
Fort Fairfield 4, Limestone-MSSM 2 – At Limestone last Tuesday, Noyes had a part of all four Tiger goals as Fort Fairfield doubled up the Eagles.
Noyes scored two goals and assisted on the other two goals. Josh Booth and Zhang Jun Rai also notched goals for the Tigers. Weeks was the winning goalie with three saves on five shots.
For Limestone-MSSM, Noah Touzen and Josh Forsman were the goal scorers. Three Eagle goalies combined for seven saves.
Staff photo/Joseph Cyr
JOSH ALLEN, right, leaps into the arms of teammate Nate Ackerson after Allen scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal Thursday evening. Presque Isle beat Fort Kent 2-1.
