Boys soccer: Lewiston survives Camden Hills in PKs, advances to A North semifinals

LEWISTON — Lewiston and Camden Hills went the distance.

A full 80 minutes of regulation and two 15-minute overtime sessions couldn’t settle a tied score. However, Lewiston went 5-for-5 in the penalty kicks to take Wednesday’s Class A North quarterfinal game, 2-1.

“It’s a tough way to lose; I have been on the other end of it as a coach and player,” Lewiston coach Dan Gish said. “That was a well-played game by both teams. It was a lot of minutes and keeping the mental focus for that long. I thought the guys did a good job communicating and did a great job defending as a team.”

Shafi Ibrahim converted the penalty kick that clinched the game for Lewiston.

“My fans were out here rooting for me: My brother is out here, my siblings, my family, it was amazing,” Ibrahim said. “The community was with me tonight. When I took that PK, all I thought about was the community. I took a deep breath, hit it and it went in.”

Lewiston goalie Payson Goyette made the only stop during the round penalty kicks, which Lewiston won 5-3. Goyette dove to his left to stop Maxwell Welt’s attempt.

“I saw him look that way a couple of times and I wasn’t sure, but I made my best guess,” Goyette said. “He shot it that way and then I counted on my team to make all their shots.”

No. 5 Camden Hills (8-6-1) won both regular season games, 2-1 on Sept. 3 and 3-2 on Oct. 15.

Camden Hills coach Ryan Hurley said Lewiston gave the Windjammers their toughest games all season.

“I knew this was going to be the toughest matchup I felt we were going to see,” Hurley said. “They played us the toughest every time. We played a bunch of the other teams and I felt like we played better than a lot of them, and we outshot them. But the two Lewiston games were close the whole time.”

No. 4 Lewiston (10-4-1) will play No. 1 Edward Little (14-0-1) in the regional semifinals Saturday at noon at Central Maine Community College in Auburn. Edward Little defeated No. 8 Hampden Academy in another quarterfinal Wednesday.

After a scoreless first half, the Blue Devils struck first when Jacinto Mavinga beat Camden Hills goalie Brian Leonard (four saves) to the ball in the 18-yard box and Mavinga put the ball in the open net.

“He has great composure, he has great skills, great strength — he’s a great striker and does what he needs to do,” Gish said of Mavinga. “He holds up play and finds guys; he’s also good about finding those opportunities and burying them.”

Mavinga almost stretched the lead later in the second half with a header attempt.

Goyette (four saves), who made a few key saves in the first half, made another off a Camden Hills free kick to keep the game 1-0.

“I thought the defense was playing really well at preventing a lot of the shots,” Goyette said. “I had to make the saves I had to make.”

Camden Hills had a throw-in into the offensive box with about 17 minutes remaining but Lewiston cleared the ball out of danger.

The Windjammers tied the contest after sophomore forward Charlie Pons made a couple of moves in the box and fired a shot into the goal to tie the game at 1-1.

“Charlie scored a nice goal and Mac Pierce ran around and helped make that happen,” Hurley said. “It was good.”

Leonard made a challenge off a Lewiston corner and secured a save with about 2:45 remaining in regulation. The Blue Devils had another corner kick in the final seconds, but the Windjammers cleared it.

Camden Hills’ Cameron Brown leaped in the air and his header off a corner went over the cross bar early in the second OT. The Windjammers had a shot go wide from distance late in the overtime session.

Kudra Hersi had the game’s first scoring chance nine minutes into the game, but Leonard stopped him.

Hurley said both goalies played outstanding.

“Two young keepers and they both came up really big three or four times,” Hurley said. “We always tell the keepers two or three big saves a game. I think both guys made about four. They performed well.”

The Windjammers had a free kick 38 yards out 15 minutes into the game, but Goyette fielded it like a punt in football. Camden Hills tried a long-distance shot that Goyette stopped later in the half.

Goyette’s two best saves in the opening half came with 10 minutes remaining. He punched a Camden Hill corner kick out of danger and then stopped a point-blank shot.

The momentum shifted back to Lewiston’s side as a lob near the Camden Hills 18-yard box went to Kudra Heri, who was all alone with Leonard and shot the ball into the net with about six minutes remaining. However, the referees had a discussion and ruled the play offsides and waved off the goal.