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BRUNSWICK – Konnor Scarponi scored two goals and Ryan Black had another as fourth-seeded Brunswick held off fifth-ranked Bangor 3-2 in an Eastern Class A boys’ soccer quarterfinal Wednesday.

The Dragons (9-4-2) carried play in the opening half. Ram keeper Colton Markevich grabbed a Jess Arford header before Scarponi shot high on a pair of promising bids.

After Brunswick goalie Greg Walton grabbed a breakaway bid by Eli Klein of Bangor, Black opened the scoring on a transition. Patrick Kinee broke up a Klein run and passed up the right sideline to Blake Gordon, who passed to Black breaking to the corner.

Klein dribbled past his defender and grounded a shot off a diving Markevich’s hands and inside the left post at 20:02.

“I turned around, saw an opening on the right side and shot for the far corner,” said Black.

Scarponi made it 2-0 after taking a pass from Arford, getting behind the defense and drilling a shot inside the left post from 15 yards with 6:53 remaining.

Scarponi skimmed the crossbar on a penalty shot four minutes into the second half before Markevich just beat him to the ball on a setup from Blake, and Alex Campbell just missed the right post at the other end off a Josh Audibert cross.

Scarponi got his second goal by outfighting a defender for a long Cullen Shea throw-in and scoring from in close.

“We saw they weren’t marking me early, so the coaches said to go over the top and put some in and that’s what I did,” said Scarponi.

“Scarponi’s a quality player,” said Bangor Coach David Patterson, “but we didn’t have any set plan to mark him. We had some breakdowns in the back and he took advantage.”

Down 3-0, the Rams (8-2-4) rallied.

After Markevich stopped a point-blank Arford bid, Domininc Veilleux took a Joey Kacer pass in the middle and ripped a 30-yarder into the top right corner with 13:12 remaining.

Hunter Boyce shot just wide four minutes later for Bangor before Chapin Frost made it a one-goal game with 6:46 left. Boyce grabbed a loose ball in the box, and his shot deflected off a defender and into the right side.

“The things we talked about before the game came to fruition,” said Brunswick Coach Mark Roma, “especially in the first half, and we’ll take that as a positive. “But Bangor fought to the whistle. We started to show some cracks and they didn’t. It was good to see the frustration on our faces, but I told them we won and we get to keep playing.”

“We showed a lot of character,” said Patterson. “We’ve had to climb out of holes a number of times this year, but I thought we played a first-class game and I couldn’t be prouder.”