Scarborough’s Jessica Schoppee had played enough field hockey for one day. The Red Storm was tied with Deering in its preliminary round Western Class A playoff game, and the first overtime was coming to a close.

Schoppee had had enough. The game, originally scheduled for Saturday, had already been postponed twice and now, here the teams were going back and forth, wasting valuable energy that would be needed for Wednesday’s quarterfinal showdown with Gorham.

So, Schoppee concentrated all of her attention on the ball as it came off the stick of Sarah Bonenfant and weaved its way through a maze of sticks and legs. When it finally reached her near the left post, she one-timed it past goalie Brittney Braasch and off the back of the goal to give the Red Storm a 1-0 win.

“I think every game’s going to be battling like that,” said Scarborough coach Kerry Mariello. “It’s going to be about being in the right place in the right time and putting that ball in and following through with it. And Jess Schoppee, luckily she’s on our end of things. She can do it. She’s one of those that wants it bad and can execute what she wants.”

As bad as she may have wanted it, the scoring opportunities were limited for Schoppee and the rest of the Red Storm.

The teams – Scarborough is seeded seventh, Deering was 10th – spent the first 15 minutes of the game feeling each other out. After that they threw the momentum back and forth like a hot potato.

First, it was Scarborough’s turn. The Red Storm was awarded the game’s first penalty corner 19 minutes in. Two minutes later they got another and three minutes after that they got one more. Each chance ended the same way, though. Jessica Baker would get the play started from the end line, but the Rams would ultimately clear the ball away.

Deering got its first penalty corner near the end of the half. The chance was thwarted, but it allowed the Rams to take over the momentum. When the second half began, they were the ones controlling the pace of play. A minute in, Christine Boucher nearly converted a penalty corner, but the ball went wide. Three minutes after that Tori Cash broke in and created another penalty corner. Again, though, the Rams couldn’t make good.

“It was an evenly played game. It couldn’t been any closer. We just didn’t execute on the plays we needed to execute on,” said Deering coach Andrew Gordon. “We had chances, but we just couldn’t take them for whatever reason. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. It’s kind of the story for our season a little bit. We’ve had lots of overtime losses and we just haven’t been able to complete the chances when we have them.”

There would be more penalty corners for both teams through the second half, but the best scoring chance of all didn’t occur until midway through the overtime period.

With the teams playing seven on seven, there was more room on the field to maneuver and Deering’s Rebecca Schack too advantage. She slipped in behind the defense and caught a long pass that sent her in alone on Scarborough goalie Andrea Shryock. Fortunately for the Red Storm, Shyock was locked in. She charged out from her cage and rattled Schack just enough to force her shot wide.

The save set the stage for Schoppee’s late-game heroics.

“I didn’t think it was (going to make it),” said Bonenfant. “It went through so many people when I hit it and Jessica just got ahold of it like usual and hit it right in. It was just like practice.”

Practice involving lots of wind sprints, maybe.

Schoppee, still out of breath when the press came calling after the game, was just happy to end things.

“I knew we were all tired and we didn’t want to go into any more overtimes, so I just made contact with it and it went in,” she said.

Simple enough.

Copy the Story Link