Boys soccer: Ben Cole helps Edward Little to a big second half in win over Mt. Blue

AUBURN — Edward Little’s Ben Cole changed the game early in the second half, and his natural hat trick gave the Red Eddies a 4-1 victory over Mt. Blue in a Class A North boys soccer match Thursday.

Cole ended a scoreless tie early in the second half, spurring Edward Little’s offense.

“We got the first goal of the game and we kept shooting and they kept going in,” Cole said.

Edward Little coach Max Thompson said Cole isn’t normally a striker, but he had to move there from midfield for Thursday’s game because missed the game due to Dayow Daud receiving a red card during last week’s 1-0 loss to Camden Hills.

“Ben is really a good player; he doesn’t get put into that striker, limelight position, but that’s what we needed with Dayow being out,” Thompson said. “He stepped out and delivered.”

Mt. Blue (4-7-1) coach Zac Conlogue was happy with the Cougars play in the opening half.

“I thought we came out well and unfortunately we lost our keeper,” Conlogue said. “He’s at the hospital right now, and the kid who went in had zero minutes in net. It was a shell-shock and we overcompensated a little too much.”

Chase Ranger was knocked in the head in the first half when he and Cole collided on a bang-bang play as both players were going for the ball. Ranger left the game and was replaced by James Stinson.

COLE ON A ROLL

Cole’s first goal, a 20-yard, line-drive laser shot, found the back of the net two minutes into the second half.

“Coach told me to shoot at halftime, ‘It’s wet, it’s going to skip,'” Cole said. “I said all right, I will take some shots, and they went in.”

Nine minutes later, Cole picked up his second goal when his shot went through Stinson’s hands and into the net.

Cole completed the hat trick a minute later, sending a low, curling shot into the net.

Julien Reynolds got the Cougars on the board in the 29th minute. Mt. Blue had a few corner kicks in the final 10 minutes but wasn’t able to get the ball past Eli St. Laurent.

“We showed some good life, but when you go down 3-0, it’s a tall tale to come back from,” Conlogue said. “But I was happy with the fight.”

Orin Slover added Edward Little’s fourth goal with a long kick. Slover is a swing player between the Red Eddies’ varsity and junior varsity teams.

“Orin is a great athlete, a great player, and we are excited to get him up and give him some minutes on the field,” Thompson said.

NOTHING DOING

Midway through the first half Edward Little (8-4) winger Bode Kunas was stopped by Ranger.

A few minutes later, Cole had a shot go wide of the net for the Red Eddies.

The Cougars had a long-distance shot go over the net in the 24th minute.

Edward Little created a few opportunities to break the scoreless deadline in the final two minutes of the first half, but Colby Smyth had a ball sail over the crossbar, and Stinson stopped a close shot by Cole.

“Ben had some opportunities in the first half, too,” Thompson said. “What we talked about at halftime was, play the way we have been playing. I felt really good about what we were doing. We were generating some opportunities. We were maybe unlucky, we weren’t finding the back of the net.”