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Category Archives: Poland

September 30, 2021 · 10:36 pm

Lake Region defeats Poland 4-2

Sophomore Abigail Roberts scored twice for the Lakers

(Naples ME) Abigail Roberts to the rescue.

The Lake Region sophomore scored twice in the final 8 ½ minutes to give the Lakers (3-4) an exciting, 4-2, win over Poland (1-7) today.

LR coach David Jaeger said of Abigail, “Give her some space. Give her some time and she’s going to put it around the keeper.”

The Lakers scored on long shots by Shelby Sheldrick and Hailey Brewer to carry a, 2-0, lead into the final thirty minutes of the game.

It looked as if the Knights might be heading for another shutout loss.

Not today.

“I was proud of the girls fighting back,” said Poland coach Tyler Connors afterwards. “It was 2-0 at one point.”

The Knights had a pretty good breeze to their backs in the second half.

A corner kick by Gretchen Paradis put the visitors on the board. Gretchen’s kick curled right into the top of the far corner.

“The wind helped that kick,” recalled Coach Connors.

Eight minutes later things were even.

“On that second goal, Lexi Wallingford made a good pass to Ava Anderson,” said Coach Connors. “Ava lined it up from the left from about 20-25 feet.”

So, with fourteen minutes remaining in the game it was, 2-2.

“I was scared a bit when they tied it and it was going downhill,” said Abigail Roberts post-game.

When the Knights pressed to get the lead, Abigail was able to take advantage of weakened Poland defense.

“Abigail is a quick player,” said Coach Jaeger. “If we can get her out wide in space, she has a confident touch.”

Abigail broke in from the right and at 8:38 put LR in front for good. “I snuck it in the corner,” she said.

Abigail Roberts takes the shot which will be LR’s 4th goal

When Poland went all-out to tie the game, Abigail had a second break-in and cashed that with two minutes left to push the LR lead to, 4-2.

“It was nice to come out on top in a home game,” said Coach Jaeger.

Shelby Sheldrick’s goal was off a free kick from the left. The Knights had a wall set up, but Shelby shot right past it into the upper near corner.

Hailey Brewer’s goal was another shot over the Poland GK. “She kicked it with her left foot which is not her favorite,” said Coach Jaeger.

Coach Jaeger had praise for goalie Jordan Blanton. “She came up big when we needed it on that first-half penalty kick that would have tied the score.”

Abigail Roberts goals today were her second and third of the season. “I usually play center-mid so it’s hard to score,” said Abigail.

Coach Connors: “The Lakers possessed the ball very well. They attacked our sidelines which we kind of gave up a little bit. Their strikers made good timing runs and that was the difference today.”

Coach Jaeger: “Poland worked hard, and all the girls gave 100%. They came back and didn’t put their heads down when they fell behind.”

Coach Jaeger: “Both schools are in Class B. We play strong competition. We are on the smaller side of Class B. We don’t have nearly the athletes that the Portland area schools have. But we compete.”

How often does it happen? The referee made a mistake, and a player (Lexi Wallingford) made the correction. The referee was all set to give Poland a direct kick, but Lexi told him the kick was Lake Region’s.

There was rain in the afternoon, but things cleared out for the game.

(All pictures will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)

GK Jordan Blanton denies Madison Valentine (1)

Emma Jenkins 11 (Poland) and Delia Fontana 11 (Lake Region)

GK Jordan Blanton gets in front of a first-half penalty kick

Margo Tremblay, Madison Valentine, Abigail Roberts

Two Tristen Chaine second-half goals spark Lake Region’s 4-2 win over Poland

Tristen Chaine (#2 in white uniform) finds the far right side of the Poland net.

The Knights celebrate their first goal in five games.

(Naples ME) I love these matchups!

Put two hardworking teams together, throw out the records and catch the excitement.

And there was plenty of excitement today as visiting Poland fell to Lake Region, 4-2, on a chilly Saturday morning/afternoon of Class B South boys’ soccer.

Lake Region senior Tristen Chaine was the difference maker in the final outcome with two second half tallies.

The Knights controlled play for much of the first half but opportunistic LR jumped in front, 2-0, on rebound scores by junior Jacob Arey.

Paul Vigna (11) defended by Andrew Frechette moves in on outcoming Poland goalie Matt Thebarge

But Poland, which hadn’t registered a goal in four games, got an answer as sophomore Cooper Keene put in his own rebound with 8:57 left in the first half.

The Knights carried that 2-1 deficit to halftime and the closeness of the score was unfamiliar ground for the visitors. In a season of frequent bulging first-half deficits, here was a game they had a solid chance to win.

Poland tied the score on a lovely corner kick/header conversion with 31:54 remaining. We now had ourselves a ballgame!

I think the chilly weather really helped both teams by lessening the fatigue that the recent high heat brought. And I think the fact that both teams were in a winnable position in the second half was also an inspiration. Take your pick of the reasons. We saw minutes full of back-and-forth runs with a significant number of near misses and goalie stops as the game continued tied.

Tristen Chaine found crucial open space in the second half

But then Tristen Chaine took over. The senior showed the knack of beating defenders off the dribble during most of the game. Twice, with the game tied in the second half, those moves into space allowed him to launch left-footed rockets from the left. One at 14:00 and another at 9:02. Knights goalie Matt Thebarge had no chance on either shot as both were hard-hit and both found the upper right corner of the Poland net.

Those goals turned out to be the difference in the final 4-2 outcome.

Four minutes after the first Tristen goal, the Lakers were awarded a penalty kick when Poland captain Sam Walker took down Giovani Lopez in the penalty area. Giovani took the PK but his low shot was blocked by Matt Thebarge.

I thought, at the time, that Matt’s big save might spark a Knights’ counterattack and a possible tying goal but instead within a minute Tristen tallied his second score to increase Poland’s deficit to two.

Jacob Arey (8) converted two rebounds into goals.

Jacob Arey’s two first-half goals were almost identical. He was on the right side as first Paul Vigna, and later Jason Harlow, had one-on-one’s versus Poland GK Matt Thebarge. Matt made two gutsy blocks but both produced rebounds that went directly to Jacob with open nets to shoot at. Jacob didn’t miss on either opportunity.

Noah Breton’s goal was a beauty. Captain Sam Walker’s corner kick was head high and Noah’s was the head that connected with it. LR goalie CJ Ferguson had the middle of the net covered but Noah’s header went into the left corner. Nice play.

There were no cautions and very little contact.

I was impressed with the Vigna brothers (Paul/Peter). Peter had several key defensive plays to stymy Poland surges.

There were a few raindrops in the first half. A few more and I might have gone to my car and if I had I would have missed a very good game.

Poland (0-9) hosted Lake Region (2-8) on September 12^th and lost 3-1. LR took a 3-0 halftime lead and held off the Knights in the second half. This time around the Knights were in a tie game until the final fifteen minutes.

The Lakers had scored only two goals in their previous six games making today’s four-goal effort a welcome change.

Matt Thebarge blocked Giovani Lopez’s PK

Last time I saw the Lakers’ Matt Mayo in action was during this summer’s, “Wizard of Oz.” Terrific show.

I did the Fryeburg Academy/Leavitt football game at FA last Saturday. That day I was looking for shade (temps in the high 80’s). Today was a bracing 35 degrees cooler. I had four layers on!

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)