The weekend of June 8 was another busy one for Midcoast United’s U-12 team with two friendly games in Waterville on Saturday, June 8 and their final regular season Pine Tree League game on Sunday, June 9 in Topsham.

In Waterville, Midcoast lost 7-2 to a skilled Central Maine United team, but bounced back to win 3-1 against Western Maine United. Will Shaffer and Timmy Chappelle scored the day’s goals for Midcoast. Chappelle and Avery Stewart shared the goalkeeping duties and both made some marvelous saves throughout the two games.

Saturday’s rain gave way to a beautiful sunny day at the Riverside Fields in Topsham on Sunday, where Midcoast faced Merrymeeting. In the first play of game, Shaffer scored with an assist by Simon Spear. Merrymeeting answered with their first goal three minutes later and followed with another a few minutes after that, making the score 2-1. Midway through the first half, Shaffer scored his second goal with a spirited assist by Aidan Manahan to even up the score. Midcoast followed up with several nice goal shots by Avery Stewart and Shaffer, but they were stopped by the Merrymeeting goalkeeper.

The second half got off to an exciting start with Merrymeeting scoring again to make it 3-2 in their favor. Midway through the half, Merrymeeting made it past Midcoast’s defense again and scored, making it 4-2. Merrymeeting was unable to take advantage of a subsequent penalty kick opportunity.

Solid goalkeeping by Chapelle and good defensive play by Ben Jacobs, Ethan Carmolli, and Ella Spear helped to keep Midcoast in the game, under strong pressure by Merrymeeting. With a flurry of Midcoast shots in the final minutes, Shaffer finally nailed one, closing Merrymeeting’s lead to 4-3. Midcoast persevered and Shaffer struck gold again on a series of passes from Aidan Manahan and Simon Spear to tie the game 4-4.

With its most successful season ever, the Midcoast U-12 team looks forward to the Coastal Summer Challenge June 15-16 at Bowdoin College.