Auburn, ME - The Mustangs took the field on CM Spirit Day for their final regular season game, a Yankee Small College Conference matchup with in-state rival Southern Maine Community College in front of the largest crowd ever to watch a women's soccer game at the school. It was a fun one to watch and a hard fought extremely competitive contest by both teams with home field advantage in their playoff matchup at stake for the winner.
The game would remain scoreless for the first 34-minutes until a Mustang defender took down a Seawolves attacking player, from behind, in the box resulting in a penalty kick. Paige Lord converted for the first score of the game putting Southern Maine up 1-0. The defense for both teams turned away continued attacks for the remainder of the period and the game went into halftime with a 1-0 Southern Maine lead. Central Maine held a slight edge on shots 5 to 4.
Mustangs head coach, Rob Rodriguez, commented, "We were not at all concerned about being behind by a goal, we have been a second half team all year and our fitness level is really good right now so we felt if we could just pressure them more when they have the ball and step on the gas a little more when we are attacking that we would win the game."
The second half began with a slight tactical change to try to stop the dangerous Seawolves midfield. An increased urgency by the Mustangs to play faster in the attacking third and get more shots on goal paid off six minutes into the half when Samantha Belardo (Russell, MA) assisted by Emily Wallingford (Minot, ME) leveled the score at 1 each.
Nine minutes later Belardo would strike again off a corner kick by Rachel Dunn (Marshfield, MA) to put Central Maine up 2-1. The Mustangs kept their foot on the gas and Belardo would notch her third hat trick in the last three games off a pass by Kaylee Knight (Chesterville, ME) to give Central Maine a 3-1 lead.
The Seawolves would not go easily, and with a few shots that hit the crossbar and some breakaway attempts that forced Mustangs keeper Emma Johnson (Monmouth, ME) to come up big, the game remained at risk for the duration. The final score would remain at 3-1 for Central Maine with the Mustangs having a slight advantage in shots 14 to 10.
Central Maine finishes the regular season with a 6-6 overall record and fourth place finish in the Yankee Conference. They are back in action in Bangor on Tuesday, October 12th in a scrimmage against Husson University (NCAA DIII) as a tune-up for their playoff run. The Mustangs, who earned the 4-seed in the YSCC Conference Tournament will host the 5-seed, SMCC, on Sunday, October 17th, in Auburn.
