Corey, Willette piling up goals
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Winslow High School's Joe Corey and Waterville Senior High School's Megan Willette have certainly had no trouble finding the goal nets this fall.
Corey has scored in the Black Raiders' last six games, giving him a season total of 14 goals. In his last game against Oak Hill, Corey tallied five of his team's goals to establish himself as the all-time leading goal scorer at Winslow with 39. That broke the old mark of 34 held by Mark Gunning.
"He made some incredible moves in the Oak Hill game," Winslow coach Mike Smith said. "He beat two and three defenders to score unassisted a couple of times."
Corey is just three points away from breaking Gunning's all-time scoring mark of 57 points.
Willette is leading the Purple Panther charge back to the top of Eastern Maine Class A. She has an incredible 18 goals and seven assists in Waterville's first eight games.
Willette has scored in every game but Waterville's 1-0 loss to Edward Little.
On the other end of the field, two area boys teams are having incredible defensive seasons. Lawrence High School of Fairfield has allowed just one goal in seven games, while Mt. Abram of Strong has given up two in eight games.
Lawrence goalkeeper Nate Lovitz has six shutouts, and Mt. Abram netminder Andy Sperry has five.
Mt. Abram climbed into the No. 1 slot in Western Maine Class C this week with a 7-0-1 record, and coach Darren Allen is quick to give credit defenders Willie Nalle and Taylor Talmage, who have been playing key roles in the back all season.
"Willie is a solid marking back and has come up big for us," Allen said. "Talmage wins a lot of high balls and goes to the ball with authority."
Mitch Bois and James Marin have taken on similar roles for the Bulldogs, who are in the No. 3 spot in Eastern Maine Class A.
Another excellent defender who has not gone unnoticed this year is Winslow junior Amanda Byrne. In her first two years, she had scored 16 goals and had 11 assists and probably would have scored more but broke her nose five games into the season last year.
Byrne was asked to move to the back line by coach Scott Wood and has responded with an unbelievable effort each night. She has not scored a point this year but has been instrumental in shutting down some of the high profile scorers in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference B girls soccer.
Byrne is working with two freshmen, Kristen Cormier and Courtney Turner, in the back along with sophomore Sara Lane and junior goalkeeper Marie McClarie.
"We have allowed under a goal a game," Wood said. "Defenders are special, and Amanda has done a fantastic job for us after converting from a forward."
There are many central Maine players making contributions at the collegiate level this fall, including one coach. Former Thomas College coach Mike Keller, a University of Maine at Farmington graduate, is in his fifth year at Maine Maritime Academy as the men's soccer and softball coach.
Sophomore Derek Keenan (Carrabec) scored in the Mariners' (1-4-1) opening game, a 3-3 tie with St. Joe's, while freshman Cory Labrecque (Skowhegan) registered an assist in last week's 3-2 win over Husson College. Also contributing at MMA are sophomore Josh McLellan (Nokomis) and freshman Justin Nichols (Nokomis).
Dawn Foss (Carrabec) is a senior on the Thomas College Terrier team, who are currently 2-4-0 while Jeremy Stanford (Lawrence) is a junior on the men's team that is 2-5-1. The University of New England women are cruising towards a .500 record at 2-3-1 with the help of sophomore Megan Ladd (MCI) and junior Moriah Giguere (Messalonskee).
At St. Joseph's College in Standish, freshman Danielle McLaughlin (Skowhegan) is looking to help the Lady Monks improve on their first half record of 2-7-0.