LINCOLNVILLE — The Lincolnville middle school soccer team emerged victorious on a blustery, cold Oct. 1 at the Lincolnville pitch, defeating the Bristol Blue Devils 3-2 after Bristol gave the Lynx a real scare.

It took a while for the Lincolnville offense to get untracked, and during that time both teams staged several challenging drives into their offensive ends.

Finally, at 12:26, midfielder Mason Clark sent a long corner in which a Blue Devil defender hip checked into the nets for an own goal.

Just under a minute later, Clark received a throw in on the right side deep in the Bristol defensive zone, turned it and sent it over to winger Mikayla Talbot open off the far post. Talbot controlled the ball and promptly sent it into the back half of the net.

The Lynx got off the mark quickly in the second half, getting their third at the 35:30 mark when striker Owen McManus bounced a corner off the keeper. An alert Clark jumped on the ball and buried it deep in the net.

Both teams played evenly for a while although Lincolnville midfielder Hayden Clark managed to bounce a short clear off the cross bar, but then Bristol staged a quick resurgence.

Taking advantage of a Lynx failure to clear at 50:57, the Blue Devils got their first tally, followed 50 seconds later by a hands call in the Lincolnville box with a resulting score on a penalty kick.

At that point, the Lynx defense stiffened and ran out the last nine minutes of the game to preserve the win.

The improving defense had a good day as Chloe Day-Lynch, Canyon Palise, Liam Day-Lynch, sweeper Roo Boetsch, and keeper Avery Luft kept Bristol at bay for most of the game.

With the win, Lincolnville has nailed down at least a third place finish as they head to Rockport on Monday, Oct. 7 to play the Camden-Rockport sixth grade team.

Ben Edes is the coach of the Lincolnville soccer team. 

Reach the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com.