WALES – The chances were there.

Oak Hill held the ball deep in Freeport territory for more than 25 of the 40 minutes in the second half. The Raiders had three solid scoring chances off corner kicks in the second stanza, too.

Freeport goalkeeper Reid Christian and his defensive corps made sure none of those chances mattered.

Christian turned aside nine Oak Hill shots and watched another seven sail wide or high of the cage, and Nick Anthony netted the only goal of the afternoon as Freeport edged Oak Hill 1-0 in the soccer teams’ Western Maine Class B preliminary round matchup Wednesday.

“We anticipated that they would play the ball hard, too, but their skill was a little better than ours,” said Oak Hill coach Joe Fletcher.

Christian had every reason to be nervous. Wednesday marked the junior’s first varsity playoff start, and just his third start overall.

“It felt really good to get ahead in the first couple of minutes,” said Christian. “I managed to hold them off for the rest of the day.”

“He was fantastic in our last game against Fryeburg,” said Freeport coach Joe Heathco. “He looked great in practice, too, and we went with the hot goalie. You have to do that in the playoffs.”

Christian’s best save came midway through the second half. The ball came across the field from the keeper’s right on a corner kick. Two different Oak Hill forwards got a head on the ball, causing it to change direction twice.

Without hesitation, Christian stepped left and back to his right, just in time to take the shot in the belly. He cradled the ball with his hands, held on for a few moments, and then led the Freeport breakout with a boot over midfield.

“It was one of those things where you’re jumping to the ball and jumping back,” said Christian. “I kind of just fell right into it.”

The Falcons’ offense, meanwhile, came courtesy of a lob pass from Jack Kyle. The ball landed behind the Oak Hill defense, and Anthony outran a pair of sweepers, stayed in control of the ball and popped it past a diving Kory Vanek just 3:24 into the first half.

“The sweeper was really far up and it was early in the game,” said Anthony. “It was just one ball over. I’m fairly new at the striker position, and I’ve struggled on breakaways, so I knew I needed to bury this one.”

Vanek played well the rest of the way and stopped other solid Freeport chances to keep his team in the game.

No. 9 Freeport (6-9-0) moves on to face No. 1 Maranacook on Saturday in Readfield. No. 8 Oak Hill, meanwhile, wraps up its season at 4-10-1.