South Portland, ME - In the second of their five-road game stretch, the Mustangs traveled to South Portland to take on in-state rivals, Southern Maine Community College. This matchup is always a very physical end to end game for 90-minutes and this one did not disappoint.

   

From the opening whistle both teams were in high gear playing similar formations trying to wear each other down. Central Maine struck first in the 18th minute when Natalie Tracy (Oakland, ME) broke through the Seawolves defense to notch her first goal of the game to put the Mustangs up 1-0. About ten minutes later, Madison Drew (Sabattus, ME) had a clearing pass from a Southern Maine defender come right to her and she drilled it into the net with a one-touch left footed shot to double the Mustangs lead. The Mustangs went into the half up 2-0.

   

The second half started in similar fashion, but 13-minutes in Katelyn Ambrose cut the Seawolves deficit in half with a shot that beat the Mustangs keeper near post. That goal was enough to recharge Southern Maine and the pressure on the Central Maine back line suddenly increased. The momentum swing led to the Mustangs making the only two substitutions they made all day to get some fresh legs in the middle of the field. This seemed to be enough to prevent Southern Maine from getting completely back in the game.

    

The 2-1 lead held until the very end of the game when Tracy once again broke through the Seawolves defense to earn her second of the game with four seconds remaining on the clock to give Central Maine the 3-1 win.

 

Southern Maine goalkeeper Grayson Soldati finished with 8 saves in the loss while Central Maine keeper Emma Knowles (Manchester, ME) finished with 12 saves to get the win.   

   

After the game Mustangs Head Women's Soccer Coach, Rob Rodriguez, commented, "It is always a battle between us and them and I love the competitiveness of the games. The high conditioning level of our starting lineup was definitely evident in this game as we only made two substitutions the whole game and they came midway through the second half. Overall, we finished at a faster pace than we started and that has been a result of playing the tough schedule we have played so far."

 

Central Maine is back in action this Friday in Albany, NY against USCAA DII defending national champion, Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences in a 6pm kickoff.