AUBURN — It was the kind of game that the St. Dom’s boys soccer team was supposed to win.

And the Saints knew it.

When the favored St. Dom’s breezed by Wiscasset on Wednesday, it proved to be an easy win. Far too easy.

Though the Saints took care of business with an 8-1 victory, it was a less than ideal effort as far as St. Dom’s was concerned.

The win in the Western C quarterfinal advances the Saints to Saturday’s semifinal against the defending state champions from Waynflete. St. Dom’s hosts that matchup at 2 p.m.

“We can’t play like that on Saturday,” St. Dom’s coach Marty Bressler said. “We’ll be sent home quickly. For us, it was awful. It’s not the way we wanted to enter the playoffs and continue on. We have to make adjustments and get better.”

St. Dom’s defeated Wiscasset 7-0 in the regular season. The Wolverines only had four subs Wednesday and have a club comprised of seven underclassmen and just two seniors. The Wolverines also played a man short for most of the second half after a red card to one of their players.

“Myself and my fellow seniors, we definitely tried to step it up, but it’s hard when a lot of kids are saying, ‘We’re going to beat them by this much,'” midfielder Will Desmarais said. “They don’t understand that this could be the last run.”

Though the Saints lacked the kind of intensity Bressler hoped to see in their first tourney outing, St. Dom’s still dominated the game. St. Dom’s outshot Wiscasset 15-1 in the first half and had a 4-0 lead by halftime.

“We did what we had to do and that’s good,” Bressler said. “Now we really have to prepare for Waynflete. They’re the defending state champs, and they have a lot of pedigree and a lot of skill.”

Tyler Furtado finished with two goals and an assist for the Saints (14-0-1). Desmarais had a goal and an assist.

Those two teamed up for the first two tallies. Furtado sent Desmarias in past the defense with a nice pass. He buried it for a 1-0 lead at 8:44.

Rob Pallozzi hit the crossbar and Calvin Stewart had a shot saved by Wiscasset keeper Nate Mills, who did a nice job for the Wolverines with eight saves.

Then with 22:02 left in the half, Desmarais fed the ball up to Furtado. He cut back by a defender for an open look and 2-0 lead.

“Tyler and I know what we have to do and we know what the team needs to do,” said Desmarais. “Those bang-bang players are what we’re going to have to do against Waynflete.”

Zak Johnson nearly added to the lead with a shot off the crossbar, but Pallozzi made it 3-0 with a goal with 15:26 left. Then 1:02 before the half, Eric Link converted a loss ball in front for the 4-0 lead.

“It was hard because we weren’t able to play with a lot of pace today,” said Desmarais. “I feel like a lot of our balls were pretty slow. Come Saturday, I feel like we’re going to be more crisp, and we’re going to make those connecting passes through the middle and work the ball on the ground. Those are things we need to do.”

In the second half, Jonathan Hudson scored just 50 seconds in. Wiscasset (7-7-1) got one back when Zach Ellison scored on a penalty kick with 24:31 left. Furtado added his second of the net for a 6-1 lead with 16:41 remaining. Then Jacob Charest and Austin Roy added goals down the stretch.

“I was hoping we’d start peaking today,” Bressler said. “We had some flashes but overall we were not where we needed to be.”

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