GUILFORD, Maine- Zach Needham had a hat trick on Friday afternoon, as the Orono Red Riots defeated the Pisquataquis Community High School Pirates 5-1 in boys varsity soccer in a game played at PCHS.
Needham got his first one 5:01 into the first half off a feed from his senior teammate Liam Farrell. He did it again just 7:38 later finding the back of the net to make it 2-0 Orono. Farrell got one of his own with 9:37 to go in the first half to stretch the advantage to three, blasting a laser of a shot from just inside the box to the upper left corner of the net. PCHS (1-4) got their only goal of the game just over five minutes later on a pretty play from Kobe Gilbert. Gilbert tracked down a long stretch pass and put on a shot that looked like had Red Riots goalie Javier Alicea-Santiago beaten cleanly but the ball went off the left post, trickled just outside of the goal line to the right where Gilbert scooped up the rebound and buried his team leading ninth goal of the season to cut the deficit to 3-1. It took Orono (5-0) just over a minute to push the lead back to three, when a shot by Adam Henderson deflected off a PCHS defender and beat Pirates goalie Adam Robinson. Needham finished off his hat trick off a great setup from Chasse Campbell 6:14 into the second half to end the scoring.
Alicea-Santiago had six saves in goal in the Orono win, while Robinson had 12 in the loss for PCHS. Orono outshot PCHS 24-10 in the game. The Red Riots have only allowed three goals in five games this season. Needham and Farrell now both have seven goals to lead the team.
