Sometimes this job really throws you something you don’t expect.

I was at the St. Dom’s-Hall-Dale boys’ soccer game Wednesday and as the game began, the Saints were all over the Bulldogs. The writing was on the wall. The Saints had a number of early chances and even cashed in on one of them. It appeared as though St. Dom’s would cruise to an easy victory by a 3-0 or 4-0 score. I was already plotting what kind of story I could write about a game that wasn’t all that competitive.

Then Hall-Dale scored on its first shot late in the half to tie it, despite being outshot 11-1. Then the Bulldogs scored early in the second half and elevated their game and had a 2-1 lead with just three shots on goal. Now St. Dom’s managed to come back and win in overtime, but it proved to be an excellent ballgame.

What started looking like a bit of a yawner proved to be another exciting and entertaining game. At halftime and following the game, the officials raved about the level of play and how enjoyable it was to not only officiate the game but also just watch it. It was a competitive and hard-fought game that was clean, despite one Saints player mouthing off and getting a yellow car. Both teams passed the ball well and played soccer the way it is supposed to be played. It was a nice display of high school soccer and what it is supposed to be.

What is even better is that I’ve seen a lot of that this year. The week before I covered St. Dom’s-Wiscasset and Mt. Ararat-Lewiston. Both of those games were like tension-filled and intense playoff games. I saw St. Dom’s-Mountain Valley girls and the Edward Little-Lewiston doubleheader. I even took in a Richmond-Vinalhaven matchup. All the games I’ve seen have been fairly competitive and well-played.

I never expected to see soccer played at such a good level so consistently. After watching the World Cup this summer and the superb level of play in that tournament, I feared that the high school season would be nothing but a let down. Covering high school soccer can be a mix of seeing well-played and nice technical soccer mixed in amongst ugly blowouts and bouts of kickball. It makes one thankful for running time, even though in those dismal games the 40 minutes tend to tick away at an agonizing pace.

This year I haven’t seen a lot of that. Teams are playing soccer with precision passing and good ball movement. I haven’t seen the style of play which earned the nickname “Boot and Scoot”. Teams would just kick the ball around and run after it and hope it leads to something. That’s what youth soccer is like, but it shouldn’t be what is featured in high school. That kickball version of the game is just ugly to watch and painstakingly ineffective most of the time. Imagine other sports, football, basketball or baseball and what would happen if they decided to just through the ball around hap-hazzardly without much purpose. It would be brutal.

Soccer shouldn’t be played that way either but somehow it would be. Smaller schools with less players and less talent wouldn’t have the skills that the bigger schools did. It would result in a lot of kicking the ball around instead of passing the ball.

Thankfully, I haven’t seen a lot of that this year. Whether it has been Lewiston or Edward Little at the A level or teams like Richmond and Vinalhaven at the D level, the soccer has been pretty good. The skill has been there. The passing technique has been there. They’ve played the game the way it is supposed to be played. It doesn’t mean the execution is always flawless, but it has looked more like soccer than kickball. And that’s always a good thing.

I’m curious to see what soccer fans think about this. Do others feel the level of play has gotten better? If so, why? Now maybe I’ve just hit a good collection of games and haven’t stumbled upon the matchups that would make me cringe. I don’t consider myself that lucky. So I tend to think that I’m onto something in noticing that play is a little better. My hunch is that youth soccer is teaching better skills and participation in summer soccer is such that players are learning and developing their game better than ever before.

Regardless of the reasons, it has been a good thing to see, and I can only imagine how great the level of play will be come tournament time.