AUBURN — When Corey Morin buried a penalty kick goal midway through the first half, the Edward Little High School boys soccer team had a window to take advantage of an angry and frustrated Mt. Ararat squad, especially after Eagles coach Rick Renaud was issued a yellow card while arguing the call.

Unfortunately for the Eddies, it was an extremely small window that Mt. Ararat quickly slammed shut, getting the go-ahead goal from Robbie Small with 13:36 remaining in the first half and controlling the second half en route to a 3-1 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference victory on Tuesday.

Edward Little closes its regular season with a 7-6-1 mark, with the Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinals up next. The Eddies are currently sixth in the Heal Point standings and will travel to the No. 3 seed, while the Eagles will enter the postseason as the top seed with a 12-1-1 record and winners of 11 straight.

“We know it’s going to be a good team, on paper a better team than us, but I just said to the boys that what is magical about this sport is it takes hard work, maybe a lucky bounce and you can win on any day,” said Edward Little coach Matt Andreasen. “We beat some good teams this year — Brunswick, Hampden, drew with Lewiston. We had a five-game unbeaten run until Friday’s loss to Brunswick (4-1). We know that anything can happen in the playoffs.”

Eddies tie it

With the field conditions a challenge to say the least, Mt. Ararat jumped out quickly on a Small goal just 5:42 into the game.

“My freshman year there was a bad summer game, but that is about it,” said Morin of the field conditions after two days of rain left several rough, muddy patches on the already soft field.

Edward Little’s Maslah Hassan found a rare hole in the Mt. Ararat defense and was tripped up by an Eagles defender in the penalty area. Morin’s penalty kick found the lower left corner of the cage past the dive of Mt. Ararat goaltender Gabe Pelletier to tie the contest.

The Eddies kept coming, getting a shot from Zach Tannenbaum that Pelletier gobbled up.

That was the final look EL got in the first half as the Eagles took over, especially after Small pushed the ball past Eddies goaltender Llewellyn Jensen. The goal began with a corner kick from Nate Santeramo, with Mike Crawford heading the ball toward the net to the unmarked Small, who scored past the dive of Jensen.

“The goal was pretty important and seemed to get us all back into it,” said Small of his game-winning goal.

“We didn’t give up, and just continued to fight, one of the big things about this team,” Renaud said. “They work hard and never give up. We believe and know we have to go into every game working hard. These kids know if they work harder than their opponents, good things will happen.”

“The thing about Ararat is they’re consistent and play very hard,” said Andreasen, who joined Renaud with a yellow card late in the first half while a call. “Today was a game of aggression given the field conditions. They were the aggressors. We played hard, but didn’t match how hard Ararat played. Just not hard enough to beat a team like Ararat.”

Mt. Ararat continued to put the pressure on the EL defense of Kaleb Main, Adam Lebrun, Michael Cote, Brandon Polisky and Brady Pleau, firing the first seven shots of the second half. Jensen made four good stops, but was unable to get to Isaac Bradshaw’s first varsity goal with 25:59 remaining for a 3-1 Eagles lead.

“They have a bunch of kids that just want it,” said Morin, who left the senior day game with his uniform, legs, arms and shoes covered in mud.

Mt. Ararat finished with a 17-5 shot advantage and 7-1 edge in corner kicks. Jensen had seven saves for the Eddies, while Pelletier turned aside four shots in the win.