By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

AUBURN – During Tuesday’s soccer practice, Josh Mains told his coach that penalty kicks just might be one of his specialties.

Dave Morin wasn’t quite sure whether to believe his freshman goalkeeper, but after Wednesday, Mains left little doubt in the minds of his coach and Edward Little teammates.

Mains stopped all five penalty kicks to help lift the Red Eddies to a 1-0 overtime win over Erskine in an Eastern A preliminary. EL plays at Waterville Saturday in the quarterfinals.

“He told me in practice, I’m good at these coach,'” said Morin.

“He’s quick. He might have a hard time with the long high shots, but I tell you what, he told us that he was good at PKs. So we trusted him.”

Mains barred the door for the Eagles (7-6-2) and put it in the hands of the EL shooters. Mark St. Hilaire got the only goal needed to lift the Red Eddies (8-5-2) to victory.

“That’s the most nervous I’ve ever been,” said Mains. “The crowd helped me, and I got into it.”

Prior to each shot he faced, the EL crowd would chant his name as he paced around the goalmouth. He’d wave his arms to encourage them before turning his attention to the shooter.

“I just thought that if I could keep putting it out, our chances were way better of getting one in. Our confidence would go higher and higher with every save.”

He made a diving save on a shot to the right by Carin Daher and then made another sprawling save to stymie Jack Garrity on the second shot.

“I think the second was was the hardest one to judge,” said Mains. “He didn’t really give me a read. I just made a good guess.”

He smothered low shots by Duy Lyford and Mike Cotnoir. As well as Mains played, Erskine’s Levi Dennison wasn’t easily beaten either. He stopped shots by Carl Skilling and Billy Brewster. Ethan Grund had his shot hit the right post. EL’s fourth shooter was St. Hilaire. He popped a shot to the high left corner.

“I was looking to the right, but I shot it to the top left,” said St. Hilaire. “I was really nervous. It was really nerve-wracking.”

That left Mains facing Sam Boynton, and that shot was right at the keeper.

“He’s has good quickness, and he anticipates well,” said Morin.

Though both teams struggled to get offense going during regulation both squads had quality chances to win it in overtime. Erskine had a header by Cotnoir at the right post that hit the post. St. Hilaire set up Mike Tardif with a nice pass between defenders for a tip that went wide. In the second overtime, Dennison made a diving save on St. Hilaire and another on Tardif.

“The second half we created a lot of chances,” said Morin. “I felt a little snakebit. You worry about that. We had the better of the chances, and now we’re going to penalty kicks, and they have a veteran goalkeeper.”