Orono Advances to Semi Finals with 1-0 victory

Penobscot Valley Howlers traveled down the interstate to meet Orono Red Riots in an Eastern Maine Class ‘C’ quarterfinal match. At stake, the winner takes the long road trip to Madawaska who defeated Penquis today. On this cloudy day and temperatures in the mid 40s, the teams took to the slippery field. Nick Peterson scored a goal with 80 seconds left in the game allowing the Red Riots to defeat the Howlers 1-0 and advance to the semi-finals.
I arrived at the game with the first half almost done, and the score was 0-0 with about 8 minutes left. The game high in intensity, very physical and very aggressive play on both sides as the battle fierce. The short time I saw of the first half, both teams were pressing hard. Momentum swinging both ways, both teams advanced the ball and both teams defenses stopped the advances. Orono Goalie A J Coleman had a great save, and soon Howland Goalie Jacob Jones made and outstanding save by punching out a shot coming in by Orono and to have the deflection come right back at him where he was able to cover up the ball. This occurred with 7 seconds on the clock.

What a great second half it was. On a direct Kick by Peterson, Jones made another great save preventing a goal. A cross shot that came in from the left by Robert Hallett of Howland went wide. Paul Ohno of Orono had a shot when the momentum changed and this shot went wide left. Adam Callender stood tall and broke up many plays for the Howland defense. Tyler Brzozoski and Robin Buttery matched Callender play and between the three players, some great defense was shown for the Howlers. On a break away by Sean Kilpatrick of Orono, Callender stuffed the breakaway and sent the ball towards his offense. Petersen headed a throw-in towards Jones, who came up with a great save. Peterson came up with a blast on the right side that went around 25 yards and Jones made the save. The Howler goalie came out on one play making a great save and again the rebound headed toward the net but Jones was able to make the save. Momentum shifted and the offense of Howland, Derrick Bellavance, Charlie Gardner, and Ryan Scopino made some great runs from chips up by their defense and midfielders. Some great hustle was shown on both sides to cover these chip passes into the corners. Ryan Scopino had a shot that went just right of the goal. Adam Callender made a tackle in his end for Howland, and ended up making a great run up the middle only to be turned away by the defense of Orono. The defense for Orono, Phil Benoit, Charlie Boyle, Cam Rose, and Jacob Stoddard worked hard to keep the Howland offense away from their goalie. Gardner of Howland had a shot that went just left of the goal. As the clock wound down, Ohno was able to get a run going late for Orono, and through some passing the Orono offense got into the Howler end, only to find the defense kick it out for a corner kick. Sean Kilpatrick for Orono sent the corner kick in from the right and after the ball rebounded and some frantic kicks to clear the goal, Orono's Peterson fired it into net for the games only goal, 80 seconds left of the game. Orono finishes the game with a victory over Penobscot Valley and now travels to Madawaska for the Quarter Final game.