JAY — Spruce Mountain reached its artistic peak early in Thursday’s 4-1 Mountain Valley Conference victory over Carrabec/Madison. It spent the rest of the afternoon trying to keep the feisty Bulldogs down.

Pat Ryan led four goal-scorers with a goal and an assist as the Phoenix prepped for Saturday’s showdown with unbeaten St. Dom’s with an uneven but workmanlike win at Taglienti Field.

“We didn’t really play to our full potential yet,” said Ryan, a senior midfielder. “We still have a lot to improve on. But it was a good win. A win’s a win.”

Greg Whitney, Zach Butterfield and Doug Fournier also got into the scoring column for the Phoenix (4-1).

“They still can learn a lot from a win,” said Phoenix coach Bill Acritelli. “They’re buckling down. They’re getting better game by game.”

One thing the Phoenix didn’t need to work on early was their corner kicks. Ryan made a beautiful one to set up Whitney for the game’s first goal at 11:35.

“I just put it right in the middle, like in practice,” Ryan said. “I know (Whitney’s) going to be there, someone’s going to be there for the header.”

“I just picked up the trash, followed it in and lined it up just right and put my head down on it,” Whitney said.

The Bulldogs (0-5) used good ball movement to out-shoot the Phoenix 11-8 in the first half. That was despite having to play short-handed after a player was ejected for deliberately handling Whitney’s goal.

“We just made three or four mistakes. We’re young, freshmen and sophomore mostly,” Carrabec/Madison coach PJ Vicneire said. “I think we had more opportunities, but we’re struggling finishing. It will come.”

Ryan made it 2-0 at 15:52 with a rainbow shot that glanced off the bottom of the crossbar and in for his first goal of the season.

“I’ve been looking for that for a while,” Ryan said. “The first three games, there’s been a lot of pressure. It’s my senior year, so I’m looking for a big year. Finally, I got my first goal.”

Carrabec/Madison goalie Trent Richardson denied Whitney his second goal of the game on a penalty kick, but Butterfield did beat Richardson on a rush to make it 3-0 with just under 14 minutes left in the half.

Despite the three-goal lead, the Phoenix weren’t very relaxed at halftime.

“We tried to point out the mistakes and improve on it in the second half,” Acritelli said. “I still see mistakes that didn’t happen in the first half that happened in the second half. But they’ll correct it.”

The Bulldogs, who were missing one starting fullback with an ankle injury and another with the flu, got on the board at 15:21 of the second half on Will Crawford’s goal. Fournier made it a three-goal cushion again eight minutes later with a low line drive that deflected off Richardson’s left arm and trickled into the goal.

Phoenix goalie Dustin Jones (eight saves) clinched it by making a diving stop to his left on Crawford’s penalty kick with 4:42 remaining.