BANGOR — Senior striker Garth Berenyi set a school record for career goals scored as top-ranked Bangor held off stubborn Mt. Blue of 6-2 in a Class A North boys’ soccer semifinal Saturday.

Berenyi, the son of Rams’ head coach Garth Berenyi, scored three goals in the match to increase his career total to 57, one more than the previous record held by 2010 graduate Nick George.

“It’s pretty exciting, something I’m proud of, to be sure,” said Berenyi, who has scored 32 goals in 16 matches this season. “Our team’s been counting down, and my family, each day and I think everybody’s excited that I got all three today so I don’t have to think about it going into the next game.”

The next game for the reigning Class A state champions will come Wednesday when the Rams host No. 2 Lewiston in the regional final. Lewiston topped No. 3 Edward Little in Saturday’s other semifinal.

Bangor (15-0-1) defeated Lewiston 3-2 in the teams’ season opener in early September, then topped the Blue Devils 3-1 in the recent Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A championship match.

Roland Mattsen and Jacob Henry each added a goal and an assist as Bangor extended its unbeaten streak in countable matches to 30-0-1 with its second victory of the season over fifth-seeded Mt. Blue (9-5-2). Jacob Berenyi also scored for the Rams and David Miller and Conor O’Brien each contributed an assist.

But the win didn’t come easily.

The first 25 minutes of the match were largely even until Bangor broke through with two goals less than two minutes apart. The first came when O’Brien fed Jacob Berenyi with a long lead pass over the defense that Berenyi gathered and shot to the left of Mt. Blue goalie Tucker Carleton with 13:49 left in the opening half.

“I was a little off balance and I heard Jacob call my name and I looked up and hit it as far as I could,” said O’Brien.

Garth Berenyi, Jacob’s brother, made it 2-0 with 11:51 left in the period on a brilliant header off Miller’s cross from deep along the right wing to the center of the penalty area.

Garth Berenyi’s second goal of the match, a penalty kick, gave the Rams a seemingly comfortable 3-0 advantage with 4:29 left.

But Mt. Blue’s Sam McFarlane scored before intermission and the Cougars suddenly pulled within 3-2 on Sam Smith’s 30-yard shot just under the crossbar 6:35 into the second half.

Things got even dicier for Bangor when Garth Berenyi left the game with a foot injury with 32:07 remaining, but he returned several minutes and capped off his hat trick as Bangor pulled away with three goals in the final four minutes of play.

“There was a time when we were on our heels but never did we think we were going to stop trying to score and just hold them off,” said Berenyi. “We’re always trying to thinking that one more goal is going to put them down, the struggle was that they really didn’t want to stop no matter how many we put in.”

Mattsen restored Bangor to a 4-2 lead with 3:49 left in the match. Will Hadden crossed the ball toward the goal crease, where Henry was able to tip it back to his right where Mattsen scored from close range.

Mattsen, a junior midfielder, then lofted a lead pass down the middle of the field to Garth Berenyi, who redirected the ball just under the crossbar 38 seconds later to make it 5-2, and Henry made it three goals in 1:49 Bangor’s final goal of the match with 2 minutes remaining.

Bangor finished with an 18-11 advantage in shots, with Rams’ goalie Austin Conway making four saves while Carleton had eight stops for Mt. Blue.

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