SCARBOROUGH — They had shots sail over the crossbar, hit the crossbar and stopped by the goalkeeper.

The Scarborough Red Storm could not score in the second half.

But they didn’t have to.

Cushioned by two early goals on free-kick plays, Scarborough topped Marshwood 2-0 in the Western Class A boys’ soccer quarterfinals Wednesday night at the Kippy Mitchell Sports Complex.

Matt Caron and Wyatt Bridgham scored for Scarborough.

The top-seeded Red Storm (14-0-1) will next host a semifinal match Saturday against fourth-seeded Deering. Scarborough beat the Rams 2-0 on Oct. 7.

No. 8 Marshwood is done at 8-7-1, two of those defeats coming against the Red Storm.

But these Hawks were a much better team Wednesday.

“I knew we had a team that was catching its peak at the right time,” Marshwood Coach Ben Deschene said, “and I knew that we had a good team.

“Unfortunately, they had two set pieces that they scored on. That was the difference, really.”

A Marshwood foul 5 minutes into the game gave the Red Storm a free kick 30 yards out. Caron, a junior, set up to take the kick with a wall of Hawks in front of him.

Caron nailed it, clearing the Marshwood players and still catching the back of the net.

With 21:36 left in the half, another Marshwood foul gave the Red Storm another free kick, 22 yards out. Caron was again standing directly behind the ball.

But to Caron’s right was Garrett King. He quickly charged the ball and kicked low, past the side of Marshwood’s wall and toward the goal. It was blocked, but Bridgham was there to hammer it in for a 2-0 lead.

“They worked out today,” Scarborough Coach Mark Diaz said of the free kicks. “It doesn’t always happen like that, but it got us off to a good start.”

How commanding was the lead? The Red Storm have allowed four goals all year, and never more than one in a game.

That did not keep the Red Storm from trying to add to the lead in the second half, but several players, including Sam Ware, Spencer Pettingill, King and Cam Thibault, had near misses.

“I thought we played pretty well offensively in the second half,” Diaz said. “We didn’t finish that well, but we got those two (early goals) and we’re moving on. That’s all we care about.”

Actually, Diaz was also concerned with Marshwood’s constant attack in the second half. Paced by midfielders Cole McIntire, Riley Dinsmore-Patch and Hanssen Casey, the Hawks kept pushing the ball up.

“That shows a lot about our team,” Deschene said.

Scarborough’s back line of Nick Lorello, Ian Corey, Andrew Porada and Sam Jacob found themselves scrambling, but always escaped trouble.

“Marshwood was running people out of the midfield. There were times they had good numbers up,” Diaz said. “They caused some problems for us. We’re going to look at those things and fix them.”

 

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