Assists may be down in high school soccer this season, but it won’t be for a lack of offensive production.

A rules change has taken away the responsibility of game officials for handing out assists. In the past, soccer officials have reported the goal scorers and those assisting on the play, but now only the goal scorers are reported by the referees.

“It was a change in the rule by the National Federation,” said Brad Fogg, the Interpreter of Rules for the Maine Soccer Officials Association. “It’s not that they can’t give them, but they’re not required to do it.”

The Maine Principals’ Association typically follows what changes the National Federation of High Schools institute. The new rule now deletes “and assists” from the rule 5-3-1 (b) which states “The referee also must signal the timekeeper when the clock is to be stopped and confirm for the scorekeepers the players to be credited with goals and assists.”

“I think it’s a great change,” said Fogg. “During the moment of celebration after a goal, you’re basically trying to find out from a goal scorer who passed the ball.”

It now takes that responsibility out of the officials’ hands. Coaches and scorekeepers now have to credit their own assists.

“We do that anyway,” said Brunswick boys’ coach Peter Gardner. “Even if they don’t give the assists, we always know who had the assists.”

Fogg says he hasn’t gotten any negative feedback from the change. Officials who want to provide assists may still do so. Otherwise, teams are providing their own stats.

“Nobody’s said a thing to me,” he said. “For the most part, it was the coaches who determined them anyway.”

KVAC shootouts put off

A round of shootouts for tied KVAC regular season games has been put off until next season. The conference had approved having its soccer teams play a round of penalty kicks if a game was still tied after playing overtime.

“(KVAC president and Mt. Ararat athletic director) Colin Roy called me (Tuesday) and said that we’re not going to do it this year basically because we didn’t get communication out,” said Paul Amnott, Lewiston’s athletic director.

The idea of the shootout was to help determine the top two teams in the KVAC for the conference playoffs. The tie-breaker would have no relevance in the Maine Principals’ Association Heal Point standings or tournament play.

“We decided to come up with a way to determine who were the No. 1 and 2 teams in the KVAC by the end of the last regular season game,” said Amnott, who said teams would often have to wait for the final Heals to determine the top seeds in the past.

The winner would get three points and the loser would get two.

If the teams stayed tied after a round of kicks, teams would get one point apiece.

The plan, however, had its kinks.

“What happens if a team calls it in and says they won in penalty kicks?”, said Lewiston boys’ coach Mike McGraw. “So it goes down as a win in the KVAC, but it goes down as a tie for the MPA. What happens when you get to the playoffs and these are the teams that are in, and you find out a team is credited with a win when they actually had a tie because of miscommunication.”

The penalty kicks might also be a problem for teams that play afternoon games and haven’t allotted for the extra time.

“It doesn’t create much of a problem (at Lewiston) but if it happens to me during the season with JVs following the varsity, it makes it tough,” said Peter Gardner, Brunswick boys’ coach.

Switching sides

John Moody thought he’d have this soccer season off. After six seasons coaching the Gray-New Gloucester girls’ program, Moody decided to step away this season and devote time to watching his daughter play soccer at Greely.

When the Patriots needed a new boys’ coach, however, Moody was enticed back to the game. Moody decided to squeeze it into his schedule and try his hand at coaching boys.

“There’s some experience there,” he said. “The program has had some issues. So I think they’re ready to start something new.”