Ponies soccer team thrives
Boys program emerges from shadows
By Ernie Clark
Staff Writer
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Dillon Harmon-Weeks remembers well when he and his soccer buddies endured lopsided loss after lopsided loss as sixth-graders against teams of older players from larger communities in a Waterville-based winter indoor league.
“We’d lose 6-0, 8-0, 9-0,” he recalled.
But that experience against superior competition and the improvement motivated by those early results is being seen these days as Harmon-Weeks and the rest of the Foxcroft Academy boys soccer team are enjoying a strong start to the 2015 season.
The Ponies are 7-1-1 and ranked among the top teams in Class B North heading into Thursday’s contest against Piscataquis Community in Guilford.
“We had high expectations coming into this season,” said Harmon-Weeks, one of nine seniors on coach Luis Ayala’s roster. “We knew we had a large returning group from last year so we knew we would be able to use that experience to win close games, and a lot of us also had playoff experience.”
Indeed, Foxcroft boys soccer, long in the shadow of the school’s football program, has had its flashes of success during its history and experienced modest growth during recent seasons.
The Ponies reached the Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinals each of the last two years, last fall after a 5-0 start to their regular season.
Players on this year’s squad believe there will be more staying power beyond a fast start.
“I think it’s more the mental aspect as a unit,” said junior goalie Logan Butera. “Physically we’ve always been talented the past couple of years, but getting the toughness to win those close games when you’re down 1-0 or it’s 2-2 going into overtime, to be able to relax, get it together and play our brand of soccer so we can grind out a victory is what’s been different.”
That mental toughness perhaps was most prominent during a season-opening win at John Bapst of Bangor and a come-from-behind overtime win in the Ponies’ first meeting of the season against Presque Isle.
“Opening day we go out to John Bapst, who always plays us tough, and we had a close game going,” said Butera. “Every 50-50 ball we worked for, we had to go out and earn them because they weren’t going to give them to us, and in years past we might not win that game, it might stay tied or they might win that game.
“Going into Presque Isle we’re down 1-0 to a pretty iffy call right off the bat, and for the next 40 or 50 minutes of the game we’re battling down 1-0 and then we tie it up in the second half, send it into overtime, keep our heads about us, get our energy back and win the game with 26 seconds left. In years past that might not have happened, we might have folded. This year we’re pretty tough and we trust each other,” he added.
The Ponies have played consistently from a position of offensive strength, averaging more than five goals per contest.
Tobias Hogfeldt, a senior boarding student from Denmark new to the program, has a team-leading 14 goals and joins classmate Antonio Ayala (three goals, eight assists) as a primary playmaker with seven assists, but the offensive contributions have been widespread with Nate Church contributing 11 goals and six assists and Chandler Rockwell adding seven goals.
“Every game it’s not the same person scoring those goals, we have many options,” said Harmon-Weeks. “Last game (Ayala) had two goals and I think it was the first two goals he’s scored this season. In our first game of the season Nate scored both of our goals. We just have so many options to go to so any team that tries to scout us will try to take away one person but then it’s always another person who steps up.”
Harmon-Weeks and the other veterans on the Foxcroft roster hope roster depth will sustain itself long after they have graduated, and signs of increased stability within the program already are evident.
A healthy 38 players are competing in either varsity or junior varsity boys soccer this fall, with similarly solid numbers at the middle-school level.
“Obviously the more kids you have the better the odds you have of finding kids who can play at a high varsity level,” said Butera. “People were saying after last year when that class graduated that we weren’t going to win anymore because it was because of those guys.
“But we’ve shown that not to be true and we hope that continues when (this year’s) seniors are gone and then when I graduate. We hope to have a steady stream of players who can continue to play at a high level.”
And while these current Ponies hope to set an example for future Foxcroft teams, there’s also a more immediate goal.
“This year we can show people that this isn’t a fluke, some random thing, and that we didn’t get here by accident,” said Butera. “FA does have a soccer program, and people right now don’t respect that Foxcroft Academy is coming to play them in soccer.
“For a football game they’re worried, in soccer they’re not, but I feel like we’re starting to change that and people need to pay attention to us.”