The Eddies had produced a good effort, but trailed with less than 10 minutes remaining against a formidable Mt. Ararat team.

Then came a tying goal, a huge save on a penalty kick and a frantic overtime session as EL earned a 1-1 tie with the Eagles.

“It’s a good result,” EL coach Matt Andreasen said. “You look at the clock. There’s 10 minutes left against a team that’s as talented as Mt. Ararat and as well coached as Mt. Ararat is, you don’t like your chances at that point.

“Just like at Lewiston (a 2-1 loss), I thought we showed a lot of character. You’re playing a team and a program as prestigious as Mt. Ararat. You’re down with 10 minutes left. You expect a team like Mt. Ararat to put that away. We fought and we fought. We generated some chances at the end. We got a little luck with a bounce, but we’ll certainly take it.”

It was a hard-fought, back-and-forth battle between two of the top teams in Eastern A. Mt. Ararat (3-1-1) is currently ranked second with Edward Little (2-1-1) in third.

“We only see Mt. Ararat once,” Andreasen said. “Those single matchups between teams you don’t see a second time are so important. You can take points and not give them back later in the season. It was important to have that equalizer late, and we at least took half the Heal Points.”

EL got the tying goal with 9:10 left in regulation. Jarod Norcross Plourde had a shot from the outside that Mt. Ararat keeper Jon Roux stopped initially. He couldn’t secure the ball completely and watched it slip past him and roll into the net before he could retrieve it.

Mt. Ararat had its chances to finish regulation but couldn’t break the tie. Robbie Small had a shot deflect off an EL defender and head for the net, but Lew Jensen made the save with six minutes left.

A push in the box with 4:41 remaining gave Mt. Ararat a penalty kick. Michael Crawford took the low shot to the left of Jensen, but the EL senior keeper made a diving stop. Jensen finished with 14 saves.

“EL played tough,” Mt. Ararat coach Rick Renaud said. “I guess we’ve just got to keep working. I think my kids played hard. They’re just making mistakes that cost us.”

The Eagles put plenty of pressure on EL in overtime. One shot was headed for the inside of the right post but Jensen made another diving save. He also stopped Small on a shot.

“I don’t know what it is with them,” Renaud said. “That last third, we’ve had so many chances where we get nothing out of it. I think they all expect someone else to do it.”

Though Mt. Ararat had EL scrambling at times in overtime, Jensen and the defense in front of him responded with a gutsy performance to salvage the tie.

“When Luke Sterling went down with a rib injury, that hurt us,” Andreasen said. “He was everywhere in the midfield. Once he left, I thought they started to dominate the middle third. They got a lot of pressure on our back line. Defensively, we’re strong. We have an all-state goalkeeper and four experienced players on the back line.”

Mt. Ararat got the lead with 5:48 left in the first half. A ball came out of the left side and bounced off players in front. Andrew McCracken was there to put it home for the 1-0 lead.

EL had some opportunities to open the second half. Maslah Hassan had a few free kicks, one of which deflected off the wall and forced Roux to make a great save. Jacob Kyajohnian had a cross that was intercepted by Roux. Another nice rush and came from Bradley Morissette to Hassan but his redirection went wide.

Mt. Ararat nearly added to the lead with 14:00 left. Jensen had charged out to make a save but the ball was loose. EL defender Ben Steele cleared the ball from an open net and nixed that threat.

With 9:10 left, Norcross Plourde got an open look and fired a low shot that Roux struggled to control.

“That foot is dangerous when he gets an opening,” Andreasen said.

kmills@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link