OLD TOWN, Maine – The Old Town High School Coyotes continued to prove they are a legitimate Class B North title contender on Thursday night as sophomore midfielder Karina Dumond and junior midfielder Rhiannon Bousquet each scored a pair of first-half goals to lead Old Town to a 7-1 win over Class C North rival Orono at Victory Field.
Old Town, which scored five times in the first half, improved to 3-0 while Orono fell to 2-2-1.
Old Town travels to take on fellow B North contender Ellsworth on Friday at 4 p.m. while the youthful Red Riots play again on Monday when they entertain George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill.
The Old Town-Ellsworth game was moved up from Saturday due to Hurricane Lee.
The Red Riots worked hard but spent most of the first half in their own end as the talented B North runners-up from a year ago had the lion’s share of possession and continually forced turnovers with their relentless pressure. Old Town also won the vast majority of the 50-50 balls.
Dumond, who had the first two-goal game of her career in a 4-2 win over defending three-time B North champ Hermon on Saturday that snapped Hermon’s 55-game winning streak against North opponents, scored the first and last goals of the first half.
Bousquet, who had a goal against Hermon, scored the second and fourth goals, and freshman forward Lucy Veilleux had the third one.
Sophomore Taylor Madden and senior Alexis DeGrasse added second-half goals before Orono captain and senior striker Adella Mabee ruined senior Danica Brown’s shutout bid with 9:50 left in the game.
“We played very well,” said Old Town coach Eric Damboise. “Orono put up a great fight. We were able to get our full rotation in so it was a good experience for the whole team.
“We play a very tough schedule the next two weeks. It seems like we play every other day. So we’re trying to conserve our players’ energy,” he added.
Dumond said “we definitely came out hard in the first half.”
Dumond opened the scoring just 5:46 into the game with a well-struck shot from the top of the penalty area into the upper near-side corner, past freshman goalie Finley Sanders.
“I got the ball at the corner of the 18 and saw that the goalie was pushed over to the far post,” explained Dumond.
Bousquet made it 2-0 off a scramble in the penalty area following a corner kick.
“The ball bounced off a bunch of people to me and I just tried to put it into the corner. Luckily, it went in,” Bousquet said.
Veilleux made it 3-0 with a nice finish off a cross from the wing, calmly directing the ball to the far post with the inside of her right foot before the helpless Sanders could scramble across.
Bousquet converted a DeGrasse feed from short range to make it 4-0 before Dumond converted a breakaway off a punt by goalie Danica Brown that hopped over the head of two Orono defenders.
“They’re a quality team. It was a good challenge to play them,” said Orono coach Cid Dyjak, who started four freshmen and two sophomores. “We have things to work on, and we will.”
‘We’ve been focusing on playing together as a team this year,” said Dumond. “We are trying to continue with our short passing game and work the ball up the field slowly and conservatively. We want to get the defense running around a little bit, tire them out and keep possession of the ball.”
Senior Saige Evans again anchored a rock-solid defense for the Coyotes in front of Brown, who finished with five saves on nine Orono shot attempts.
Mabee and freshmen Nina Mitchell and Sophia Tyutyunnyk played well for Orono, and Sanders turned in an admirable performance in goal, making seven saves on 26 shots and snaring a lot of crosses.