LIVERMORE FALLS — Bill Arcetelli didn’t really need to tell his team what was wrong at halftime Thursday afternoon.

His Livermore Falls boys’ soccer team trailed Mountain Valley by a goal after a tentative opening half. It has been a recent trend for the Andies. So, at halftime, the team knew it had to respond.

“For some reason, they have this awful thing of not playing Andies soccer,” said Arcetelli. “The second half, we tried to control and tried to pass and play that type of soccer. This was a big game for us. With the new Heal points and new divisions, every win is important. They sucked it up and went out and played soccer like they were supposed to.”

The Andies (3-2) rallied with three goals in the second half for a 3-1 win over the Falcons (2-4). Khyle Whittemore led the charge with a pair of goals while  Spencer Osgood added another. Jake Freeman, Tom Ventrella and James McLamb all had assists for Livermore Falls.

“The first half we were getting outplayed and weren’t going to the ball hard,” said Whittemore. “Coach told us to be more aggressive. They’re a finesse team and like to move the ball around. We got more aggressive. They were kind of backing down and we were able to move the ball around.”

Whittemore spent much of the first half on the bench but played hard the entire second half, and the Andies responded around him.

“Sitting a kid like that for 20 minutes tends to light a fire in his belly,” said Arcetelli. “He wants to be out there, and he wanted to be out there. The second half he came on that whole half and that’s what we want from him.”

Mountain Valley got a goal from Andrew Child in the first half. Despite a strong opening half, the Falcons lost focus and composure at times in the second half. Mountain Valley didn’t possess the ball as well in the second half and allowed the Andies to dictate play. The Falcons had four yellow cards in the second half.

“We were unfortunately boxed in mentally,” said Falcons coach Jarrod Dumas. “We kept falling back and didn’t really play our game. They played a great aggressive second half. It was very well done on Livermore’s part.”

Child scored from the right side 7:30 into the game, and the Falcons had other prime chances to add to the lead. Andies goalie Willie Brown made a leaping save on a Dylan Mawhinney shot. Luiz Ristow fed Mawhinney for another bid, but he tipped it wide past a charging Brown.

After outshooting the Andies 8-4 in the first half, Livermore controlled the shots, 7-3, in the second.

“The second half, we didn’t really exploit the width of the field,” said Dumas. “We played like we were on Hosmer (Field in Rumford). If we could have done more to push the ball to the flags and exploit the corners, we could have done better.”

Whittemore tied the game 8:16 into the half. Freeman sent the ball ahead from the midfield, and Whittemore outraced the defense for the shot.

“That shifted the momentum a little bit and got the team fired up,” said Whittemore. 

Moments later, Whittemore had a similar bid broken up with a save by Falcons goalie Kyle Gauvin, but with 13:23 left in the game, Ventrella’s pass set up a chip for the game-winner.

“We put the ball over the fullbacks,” said Whittemore. “I knew I had to hit it quick. I just tried to punch it to the corner.”

Osgood finished the game off with 10:22 left. McLamb crossed the ball from the left side. Two Andies players collided in front of Gauvin. Osgood had the ball on the right side with an open net.

“They weren’t winning the 50-50 balls,” said Arcetelli of the first half. “The talk was minimal. They knew it. It’s something we drill into them constantly. They came out and played a much better second half. We just need to play 80 minutes that way.”