WATERVILLE — The Waterville Senior High School girls soccer team made it a point to play aggressively in Saturday’s regional semifinal game against Oceanside, and that style suited the Purple Panthers well. Waterville scored a pair of goals in the first 10 minutes of the game and rolled from there to grab a 4-0 victory over the Mariners.
No. 2 Waterville, now 16-0, will play in the Class B North regional final on Wednesday, against either No. 5 Presque Isle (11-3-2) or No. 1 Hermon (15-0). Those teams play a semifinal game Monday. No. 3 Oceanside ends the season at 11-2-3, with both losses coming to Waterville.
Attacking from the start was the plan, Waterville coach Mark Serdjenian said.
“They’re a very athletic team, so that’s something we wanted to do, come out and level the playing field by being assertive and playing strong, which we did,” Serdjenian said.
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead when Jordan Jabar scored off a corner kick at 37:06. At 30:42, Waterville made it 2-0 when Sadie Garling took advantage of an Oceanside turnover, with a shot from the right beating goalie Raechel Joyce.
Meanwhile, Oceanside was unable to generate many scoring chances. If the Mariners did move the ball into Waterville territory, the Panthers tight defense quickly regained control and ended the threat.
“The whole team worked so hard. Our defense is the key to everything. Getting the ball up and crossing it in is how we score the best,” Waterville forward Mackenzie St. Pierre, who scored at 20:01 of the first half to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead, said.
Waterville goalie T.T. Brandon made six saves for the shutout. An Oceanside goal with 3:12 left in the game was disallowed after an illegal throw-in.
Sophie Webb’s goal, tapped in when the ball squirted away from Joyce, with 1:46 to play closed the scoring.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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