LINCOLNVILLE — The Lincolnville co-ed middle school soccer team pulled out a tense victory over the Vinalhaven Vikings on a warm afternoon on the Lincolnville pitch Monday, Sept. 17, by a score of 3-1.

The Lynx offense, perhaps hampered by the heat, took almost 12 minutes and several previous tries before finally racking up a score when winger Griffin Dubrow ran the left side of the field to beat the defense and then dribbled deftly past the keeper before sliding the ball into an open net.

The rest of the half played out with no further scores even though Lincolnville had a distinct possession advantage.

The Vikings hung tough, however, fortified by a strong effort by their keeper whose quick hands and aggressive patrolling of his box kept the LCS offense at bay.

Vinalhaven came out strongly in the second half, but LCS scored first nonetheless at the 39:49 mark after a hands ball call on the Vikings’ defense about 10 yards outside of the box to the left of the vertical midfield line. Dubrow lined up his shot and lofted a fine try over the defense that the keeper was just able to brush with his fingertips but not enough to deflect it out of the net.

It took another five tense minutes with several dangerous Vinalhaven thrusts upfield before the Lynx struck again.

The LCS defense sent a strong clear up to three-quarters field which was corralled by Dubrow once again. He took a quick dribble to freeze the defense before bouncing a pass off a defender to striker Jordan Peasley who adroitly slid his shot by the charging keeper to his right.

There is no question that the score would have been more lopsided had it not been for the skillful play of the Vinalhaven keeper and the support of his defensive squad, and they have much to be proud of given the quality of the effort they put forth.

Ben Edes is the coach of the Lincolnville soccer team. 

Reach the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com.