PORTLAND — When 80 minutes of regulation and two 15-minute overtimes weren’t enough to decide a winner Friday night in its Western Class C boys soccer semifinal, second-seeded Waynflete was well-prepared for the penalty kick tiebreaker against No. 3 Hall-Dale.
The Flyers won the penalty kick tiebreaker 4-2 on goals from Daniel Wiener, Kevin Kanakan, Paul Runyambo, Henry Cleaves and two saves from keeper Zander Majercik to earn a 1-0 victory at Deering High’s Memorial Field. Waynflete (12-1-3) advances to the regional final Wednesday against ninth-seeded North Yarmouth Academy.
Waynflete coach Brandon Salway said his team has spent plenty of time working on penalty kicks in recent weeks, and also noted that the Flyers were helped by their experience in close games.
“We’ve actually had a lot of games like that this year,” said Salway. “We had two scoreless ties with Sacopee that went right down to the wire. We had a tight game with NYA, when we scored in the final five minutes to beat them. We spent three weeks practicing PKs, so that practice paid off.”
Both teams had ample opportunities to score throughout regulation and overtime, but brilliant performances by both goalkeepers kept the game scoreless.
Majercik stopped six shots. Sam Shepherd made eight saves for Hall-Dale (13-2-1) through regulation and overtime, but couldn’t guess right during penalty kicks.
Hall-Dale coach Andy Haskell called Waynflete the best opponent his team has seen all year, and said he was satisfied with the Bulldogs’ performance.
“We’ve never played a team the caliber of Waynflete. Top to bottom, their skill level is exceptional, they have great athletes,” Haskell said.
“We had seen them play once, and we prepared as best we could. On PKs anything can happen, I thought our kids did a fantastic job.”
While the game was back and forth throughout, Waynflete had more scoring opportunities. Peabo Knoth nearly ended the game in the first overtime, but his shot from 15 yards went wide right by inches. Earlier, a shot by Max McKendry hit the crossbar after he gathered a cross from Knoth with 27 minutes left in regulation.
“We had our chances. I think their goalie made really nice plays on some of our chances. We hit the crossbar and we’d like to have that one back, but what are you going to do?” asked Salway.
“I think the better team won today,” said Haskell. “I think Waynflete is the best team in Class C, and we gave them a great run for 110 minutes.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
