LEWISTON — Camden Hills coach Ryan Hurley said he wanted his team to start fast Saturday against Lewiston.
He did imagine the Windjammers to start this fast.
A little more than a minute into the game, Camden Hills already had two goals, and it held on for a 2-1 boys soccer win over the Blue Devils.
“We talked about starting fast, but I didn’t expect that,” Hurley said. “One of the things we talked about was we wanted our mentality to be right, and if you sit back they will pick you apart. I thought we did a really good job of pressing, and the first two goals were a result of that.”
Fourteen seconds into the game, Cam Brown and Charlie Pons successfully converted a give-and-go on the right side of the penalty box that Brown finished with a hard-hit shot into the bottom-left corner of the net to give the Windjammers a 1-0 lead.
They made it 2-0 only 57 seconds later. Brown again got possession of the ball, at almost the same spot, and found an opening on the left side again to score and double Camden Hills’ lead.
“He’s brilliant,” Hurley said of Brown. “He’s electric, and he’s got an engine and goes 100 miles an hour and sees things others don’t.”
Brown said a loose ball started his first goal and a good connection with a teammate started his second.
“It’s early in the game so you want to come out fast,” Brown said. “I saw a bad touch and the ball fell to me and I wanted to get the ball on goal away from the goalie. The second was kind of a bouncing ball and my left back Avery Hackett, we play adjacent positions, and he found me with the ball over the top, and I just got the touch over the center back and I got it in the corner.”
The Blue Devils (0-1), knocked on their heels so early in the season opener, began to push the ball on offense.
Over the next few minutes they put up three shots, but none on target, all just wide of the net.
With 10 minutes gone in the first half, Shafi Ibrahim and Kadra Heri found each other on slick passes in the box, and Heri shooting hard from just a few feet away from the goal but right into a Camden Hills defender.
Lewiston kept applying pressure, but Camden Hills’ defense remained stout.
Brown started to kick the tempo up for Camden Hills (1-0), and with 24 minutes left in the half he booted a curving shot that was saved by the diving hand of Lewiston goalie Payson Goyette.
The Windjammers had a corner kick with 15 minutes to play in the half, but the shot was tipped out by a defender’s foot, keeping the deficit to two goals.
With five minutes left in the half, Goyette made a big save to again keep the deficit at 2-0. Goyette then pushed a Lewiston counter with a big kick up the field, but nothing came of the attack once again for the Blue Devils.
With less than a minute left, Ibrahim put up a shot between the legs of a defender and it was kicked to the side and off the post. The rebound shot by Lewiston was high and the teams went into the half with Camden Hills still leading 2-0.
The Blue Devils finally turned their pressure into a goal in the second half.
Ibrahim shot from a few yards out and the rebound off the save went to Mohamed Gabow, who placed his shot from 10 yards out into the bottom left corner with 32:46 left in the match.
“It’s one of those games where we’re younger and we made some mistakes tactically at the beginning that we cleaned up,” Lewiston coach Dan Gish said. “We got better. I wouldn’t say we are proficient, but this team has struggled a little bit at the beginning, but every week they get better.”
The Blue Devils tried to keep the pressure going, getting a corner kick at the 26-minute mark that was caught by Camden Hills keeper Brian Leonard.
Lewiston kept the offensive attack going, opening up a couple chances with just under 20 minutes to play, but still couldn’t find the back of the net.
“We can take a lot of positives out of this loss, but no one likes to lose,” Gish said. “I thought we had a lot of quality chances. It’s always fun to play Camden and it’s always fun when we get together. It’ll be fun when we go down there and we’ll have a little chip on our shoulder.”
Lewiston had a few chances at the end of the match but couldn’t find the back of the net.
“I don’t think we’ve ever beat Lewiston in the regular season, and we want to do some big things this year,” Brown said.
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