Oui Oui

There's no other place I enjoy going on my soccer trip than the St. John Valley. It's a nice drive (during the day, of course, when I can see if there are any critters with antlers lurking), the people are nice, and the soccer is fantastic.
And of course, every year, I have to make my once-a-year stop at Tastee Freeze in Madawaska, which I did en route to Monday night's game between the Caribou and Fort Kent boys.
The ice cream at Tastee Freeze is unlike no other, so although I was quite full after a club sandwich and milkshake, I had to get a peanut-butter flavored ice cream (soft serve, of course), and after stuffing my face, I headed down to Fort Kent.
The weather was very un-Valley like, in a good way of course, as temperatures during the JV contest were in the upper 80's, which prompted me to leave my sweatshirt in the car, a rarity for night games up here.
After getting my laptop plugged in, I settled in to watch the Vikings and Warriors do battle.
Caribou always has contending teams and Fort Kent was the defending Eastern Maine Class C champions, so I figured this would be a competitive game.
I was right, as both teams played hard, aggressive soccer throughout the first half, but once again, goals were at a premium. I got to thinking, was this going to be my third 1-0 game in four days?
It sure looked that way after Fort Kent's Lucas Levesque scored in the final seconds of the first half, even though the Warriors were dominating, Caribou couldn't muster any scoring chances.
Then, while talking with some of the officials at halftime, one of them uttered the words you NEVER say in a close game when a reporter is on deadline: "I hope this game doesn't go into overtime." Had we learned nothing from the Bangor-Skowhegan regional softball final when someone uttered those words and that contest went into extra innings before the Rams prevailed?
It looked as if my worst fear wasn't going to come true, but then Caribou's Blake Blackstone scored late in the second half to tie the game, and both teams couldn't score for the remainder of regulation.
The good news was there is a short break in between regulation and overtime in high school soccer, so I was able to get a few paragraphs written.
Both teams had chances in the overtimes, but the game ended in a hard-fought, 1-1 tie. I managed to get everything done before 9:30.
Normally I like to stop and eat after games, but I had a long trek back to Presque Isle and another trip to the Valley the next night, so I got out of there as quickly as I could, arrived home at 11:00 and was asleep by midnight. Two rivalries in two nights to finish my trip, so I needed my rest!