Led by a bare minimum giving the maximum, Monmouth Academy is making a somewhat unlikely run at a Western Class C boys’ soccer playoff berth.

Thirteen players suited up for the Mustangs in a trip to Jay this past week. That didn’t stop Monmouth from packing away a Heal Point-worthy 2-1 win over Spruce Mountain.

Kyle Fletcher, one of only two seniors on the roster and the school’s all-time leading scorer, blasted home one of the goals. Freshman Hunter Richardson picked up the other.

“It doesn’t really affect the way we play (in games). It’s more of a factor in practice,” Fletcher said. “We can’t really get a good, hard scrimmage, and we can’t afford to get anybody hurt in practice.”

Monmouth’s two substitutes in the game were a freshman and a sophomore homeschooled student who recently joined the team.

Coach Joe Fletcher, Kyle’s father, used them sporadically to spell his starters.

“They’re not experienced in varsity soccer, but they’re giving us what they can,” the coach said.

Between the Spruce Mountain triumph and a 1-0 shutout of Carrabec the next day, Monmouth (7-5) appears locked into a playoff spot. The Mustangs finish up with Dirigo and Winthrop this week.

Spruce en-titled

Hard to imagine it, but Spruce Mountain was the MVC field hockey team under the radar in 2012.

By the time Lisbon and Winthrop locked up in the Class C state championship, with the Greyhounds prevailing, Spruce and its double-digit win total might have been forgotten.

Don’t you forget about the Phoenix in these playoffs.

For the second time in its three-year history, Spruce Mountain will enter the postseason riding the crest of an undefeated conference campaign.

On the heels of a 13-0-1 run — Spruce tied Lisbon on the road in the first game of the season — the Phoenix walloped Winthrop, 4-0, in Thursday’s MVC championship game at Dixfield.

Nicole Hamblin scored two goals for the Phoenix. Morgan Fournier and Emily Hogan also found the cage, while Kasey Richards made three saves to seal the shutout.

Since the merger of the Jay and Livermore Falls programs in 2011, Spruce Mountain is a staggering 37-2-3 in regular-season play.

The Western Class B playoffs have been a challenge for the Phoenix, whose separate winning traditions were established in Class C. Mountain Valley eliminated Spruce Mountain from the regional semifinals two years ago, and York got the better of a quarterfinal battle in 2012.

Second-seeded Spruce Mountain will host Fryeburg in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Shafer shines

Will Shafer of Gray-New Gloucester cruised to the boys’ championship Friday in the WMC cross country championship meet at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.

Shafer completed the course in 16:26, eight seconds ahead of his closest competitor.

That time is more than a minute faster than Shafer’s seventh-place run a year ago. He finished fourth as a sophomore.

Little things mean a lot for Eddies

Edward Little goes into Monday’s girls’ soccer finale with rival Lewiston with at least the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Class A tournament clinched. The Red Eddies (8-5) have won three of their last four.

After losing eight contributing seniors to graduation, coach Craig Latuscha juggled his lineup, installing junior Molly Murray as his full-time goalkeeper and moving senior Taylor Landry, who split time in net with Murray last year, to the front line.

The move solidified the Eddies in both the front and the back. Murray has posted seven shutouts and Landry has scored nine goals.

Latuscha admits he didn’t expect the changes to work this well, or the Eddies to be so competitive with some of the top teams in the KVAC. But the team still has some work to do.

“We lost a lot of seniors last year, and this is quite a surprise they have been performing as well as they have,” he said. “We won a big game against (previously unbeaten) Bangor (1-0). We only lost 2-1 against Hampden. We’ve got another big game coming up against Lewiston. It doesn’t matter what the records are. It’s always going to be a real close game.”

Greyhound’s prayer, via Nebraska

Many high school football teams have a tradition of singing the school fight song after a game. The Lisbon Greyhounds looked to college football to start a new tradition.

It’s called “The Husker Prayer,” a pregame tradition for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers football team. Lisbon senior captain Jordan Glover leads the Greyhounds in it, in call-and-response fashion, while sitting atop the shoulders of a couple of linemen, after every game.

“In the battles we go through life

We ask for a chance that’s fair

A chance that is equal with all in stride*

A chance to do or dare

If we should win, let it be by the code

Faith and Honor held high

If we should lose, we’ll stand by the road

And cheer as the winners go by

Day by day, we get better and better

‘Til we can’t be beat

Won’t be beat

*some versions substitute stride for strife

“I’m not even sure where it came from,” Glover said. “Last year, we kind of started it and it didn’t really go. Then we were going to do it before the game but we decided to do it after the game.”

“It actually describes our team,” junior QB Kyle Bourget said. “If we lose a game, we’ve got to work harder and harder and refuse to lose.”

The Greyhounds (6-1) have done just that since their season-opening loss to unbeaten Winthrop/Monmouth. They’ll put their winning streak on the line at Oak Hill (5-2) next Saturday. A win clinches the No. 2 seed in the Western D playoffs.

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