Red Stormer Noah Stracqualursi put his boys on the board at Bonny Eagle early on Thursday evening, Sept. 8, scoring on a PK and knocking the Scots – facing an uphill challenge against the reigning A South Champions – back on their heels. Bonny Eagle evened the action up a bit in the second half, but could never find an answer to Scarborough’s defense, and the result was a 3-0 shutout.

“It was a good game,” said Storm head coach Mark Diaz. “The league is wide-open. There’s so much parity now that you come on the road like this, it’s a tough place. Bonny Eagle’s going to win some games this year. We knew it would be a tough game, so we’re very happy with this win. We played really well, we got a shutout; that’s what we wanted.”

“In the second half, we gave them a good game,” said Scots head coach Lawrence Robertson. “We played timid in the first half. We kind of let their reputation determine how we were going to play. You can’t do that at home. We made some poor decisions in the first half. But in the second half, we played the game I expected to see, definitely.”

Bonny Eagle incurred an ill-advised penalty roughly six minutes into the opening half, handing Stracqualursi – one of Scarborough’s top threats – some low-hanging fruit. Stracqualursi beat Scots keeper Brady Grass for 1-0, a dispiriting development for Bonny Eagle, who well knew they’d need to be on top of their game from the get-go if they hoped to dry out the mighty Storm.

“Some mistakes early in the game cost us,” said Robertson. “When you give up a goal so early on in the game, it’s a huge momentum shift, and all the momentum you have from playing at home and getting excited for the game kind of downshifts. It’s hard to recover from that.”

“Giving a team like Scarborough a PK in the beginning of a game can determine the outcome of a game,” said Robertson. “The most vulnerable times in a game are the first five minutes and the last five minutes of each half.”

“It’s only the third game of the year,” said Diaz, “so we’re still developing. It was good for us to score early on the road.”

Maybe nine minutes after Stracqualusi’s initial strike, he assisted Marc Guerrette on the team’s second goal of the night.  

“We crossed one from the right side, through the box, and [Marc] came in and buried it,” said Diaz. “It was a nice goal; we just put it across the goal-mouth and…it was a good finish.”

The Scots settled down after that, and managed to hold Scarborough at bay all the way into the break and beyond. The Storm wouldn’t score again until 22:42 of the second half, when Spencer Pettingill capped their evening, blasting a low ball left past Grass from 30 yards out or so.

“It was placed properly, and I don’t think their keeper saw it, there were so many people in front of him,” said Diaz. “It was one of those; by the time he picked it up, I think it was by him.”

Diaz praised a number of his guys for their leadership thus far this season, including Stracqualursi. “Noah’s one of our leaders, he’s a senior; so is Garrett King, so is Justin Perry. So there’s a number of guys that are stepping up and playing well.”

Robertson was pleased with the way his boys played in the second half. “They got composed,” he said. “They were able to gather their composure, and they were able to move the ball easier…They gave us time on the ball and then we were able to realize that and look up and move the ball better.” 

Robertson patted a handful of his boys on the back for leading the team’s effort to regain its poise. “Aidan Rausch played a better second half; Max Harris’s communication, and David Burns back there – in the center-backs – they did a really good job. David kept all the guys’ heads in it. For the most part, Ryan Moody was composed for most of the game.”

Diaz applauded the Scots’ late-game play. “They pushed back a lot on the second half; they came at us more. I thought they did a good job.”

“Overall,” Diaz said, “I thought it was pretty well-played. Pretty good soccer. We had our opportunities, we managed to keep their opportunities low. I was just happy with the overall win…We got a lot of different people in; a lot of guys played.”

The win bumped Scarborough to 2-1 in 2016. The Storm welcome Gorham on Tuesday the 13th, then drop in on South Portland two days later.

Bonny Eagle, meanwhile, slipped to 1-1. The Scots visit South Portland on Tuesday, then host Gorham on Thursday.

Bonny Eagle’s Ethan Hamilton chases down Scarborough’s Alex Dobecki in the teams’ matchup on Thursday night.

The Scots’ Max Harris and the Storm’s Cam Thibault battle for control of the ball.

Scarborough’s Garrett King pounces on an incoming ball near the sideline at Bonny Eagle Thursday night.

Scarborough’s Jared Greenleaf and Bonny Eagle’s Aaron Rae tumble upfield, vying for control.

Scot Maccoy Freeman and Stormer Owen Tyson shoulder into one another at Bonny Eagle on Thursday night.