WATERVILLE — It was the first regular season boys soccer game between Winslow and Waterville high schools in decades, and it left all participants unsatisfied.

Neither the Purple Panthers nor the Black Raiders earned any bragging rights Tuesday night on the Thomas College turf. The teams played to a scoreless draw, which only seemed to stoke the fire for next Tuesday’s rematch in Winslow.

Waterville is now 4-1-1, while Winslow is 5-0-1.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed, but the great thing is we see them again on next Tuesday night,” Waterville coach Kerry Serdjenian said. “It was a hard-fought game by both teams. We’re looking forward to playing them again.”

Added Winslow coach Aaron Wolfe: “I don’t think either team’s happy that happened. We’re definitely not.”

This is Waterville’s first season in Class B, and when the Panthers made the drop from Class A, one of the selling points was renewing the rivalry with Winslow. Early in the game, it looked as if Waterville would own the day. The Panthers controlled play for the first 10 minutes of the game, but couldn’t generate strong scoring opportunities.

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“I’d like to see us connect on a few more passes and get a few more shots on goal, but maybe it’s a testament to the other team working hard,” Serdjenian said. “We really didn’t have the kind of shots, the kind of opportunities, we usually generate.”

Waterville’s best scoring chance in the first half came off the foot of Christian Rustad, but his high shot from the left sailed over the right post.

“I felt like in the first half, they played a little better than we did. I felt we came out a little flat,” Wolfe said. “That’s by far the best team we’ve played. We’ve had it easy lately, so it was good to play a game like this. The intensity level hasn’t been near what it was today. It took us some time to get in the flow of that. Now we’ll be ready for that.”

Winslow was able to apply more pressure in the Waterville zone in the second half and in overtime, and twice the Black Raiders had a strong chance to break the scoreless deadlock. Waterville goalie Liam Edwards was able to deflect a free kick over the crossbar with under two minutes left in regulation. Late in the second overtime, Dakota Herman’s shot went left of an open net following a corner kick.

“I think he didn’t realize how open (Herman) had it. He had it, it was just wide,” Wolfe said.

A Winslow chance in the closing seconds of the second overtime was waved off by an offsides call.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com


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