SOUTH PORTLAND – The Westbrook boys soccer team didn’t come out with a win at South Portland Tuesday night, but considering the team came into the game without a victory on the young season, the Blazes were happy to walk off the field with a 2-2 tie.

The tie moved Westbrook to 0-3-1 on the season and dropped the Red Riots to 2-1-1. Westbrook currently sits in 11th place in the latest Heal Point standings while South Portland is eighth.

“We’ve had a rough start,” said John Morgan, who filled in for Blazes Head Coach Tim Gillis, who was not on the sidelines for the game (see accompanying story). “But this is a good result against a solid team. We needed those (Heal) points, so they came out and played well.”

The Blazes had to battle from behind in this one, as the Riots took a 1-0 lead with 17:33 left to go in the first half. The goal was a bit of a confusing one as the Riots’ Nem Kaurin took a shot from about 30 yards out that Westbrook goalie Austin Watts, who finished with 11 saves on the night, appeared to think was going wide of the net. Unfortunately for Westbrook, the shot slipped in just inside the post and the Riots had the lead.

Trailing 1-0 at the half, Westbrook came out looking to get back into the game, but first they had to survive a couple of solid scoring chances from South Portland. Less than eight minutes into the first half, the Riots made a nice cross pass right in front of the net, but the Blazes’ Chris Bailey was there to knock the ball safely away.

Then, with just under 28 minutes to go in regulation, the Riots got off another dangerous shot, but this time, Westbrook’s Ghassan Hassoon was there to stop it from going in.

The Blazes finally got on the board with just over 21 minutes to play in regulation. Westbrook captain Dylan Gillis took a pass from fellow captain Joe Quinlan and Gillis unleashed a shot from about 25 yards out that got past Riot goalkeeper Shawn Shannon to make it 1-1.

With momentum firmly on their side, it didn’t take Westbrook very long to grab the lead for the first time in the game. With 19:32 showing on the game clock, Owen Gillis took a booming shot from the middle that hit the crossbar and ricocheted straight down and over the goal line to make it 2-1 in favor of the Blazes.

The Riots, sensing an upset at hand, turned up the offensive pressure after falling behind and managed to tie the game with 14:18 to go on Kaurin’s second goal of the game. Taking a pass from striker Damjan Draskovic, Kaurin knocked a shot past Watts to knot the score at 2-2.

The Riots kept up the pressure for the rest of regulation, but weren’t able to break through and take the lead. That held true for the two five-minute sudden-death overtime periods that followed, with the best chance coming with 1:04 left in the second overtime. The Riots’ Jack Lano got a clean break on the ball and came in on the Westbrook goal, but Watts came sprinting out to meet him, making a sliding stop to preserve the tie for the Blazes.

Morgan said he was pleased with the way the team responded to the game. “A lot of credit goes to them, they prepared themselves for the game,” he said. “They came together and got a positive result.”