Somebody had to win.
After an hour of regulation, two overtime periods and several rounds of penalty corners, Bonny Eagle’s Brittany Delaney tapped in the day’s only goal, giving her team a 1-0 victory Saturday in a hard-fought regional semi-final battle against Gorham.
The Scots advance to the western Class A final Wednesday at Sanford, a squad responsible for one of only two blemishes on Bonny Eagle’s 14-2 record this season.
The Rams, also 14-2, owe both losses to the team they hosted beneath Saturday’s overcast sky – the previous meeting also a 1-0 game decided on a late goal by Delaney.
“We knew they were going to show us something today,” said the senior forward. “We were very nervous, but I knew I just had to believe in our team.”
The action moved back and forth for the entire afternoon, Scots midfielder Kelly Johnson sending rockets off her stick and into her team’s offensive end, while Gorham counterparts Melissa Sanborn and Danielle Moody initiated offensive rushes in return.
With Chanelle Hallsworth battling on the sideline and wings Emma Deans and Leigh Maniscalco digging out balls deep in the corners, the Rams pushed Bonny Eagle as few other teams have this season.
But Courtney Wallace and Lacey Whitehouse spearheaded a Scots defense that has allowed only six goals all year. Behind them, goalkeeper Meghan Ledoux was like a stone wall, smothering a loose ball three minutes into the contest, making a kick save early in the second half and stopping a shot off Moody’s stick through a screen in the first overtime.
“My goalie was unbelievable today,” said Bonny Eagle coach Patty Bourget. “She had probably the best game she’s had all season for us.”
At the other end, Gorham’s Rachel Lolly was no slouch herself. The junior keeper did not allow more than one goal in any game this season.
Lolly stopped a breakaway midway through the first, kicked out a shot by Scots forward Morgan Sanborn in the midst of a second-half flurry by the visitors and made another kick save in the overtime round of penalty corners.
“My teammates are amazing,” Lolly said. “I get all my energy from them because they never give up. They’re like a never-ending supply of energy.”
That energy was on display all over the field, even as a chilly breeze picked up in the second half, but Bonny Eagle had their own reserve of energy, and it rivaled their opponents.
Regulation ended in a scoreless tie, and the number of players on the field was reduced from 11 to seven for the eight-minute overtime periods. The squads continued to pull out all the stops as the action moved from one end to the other.
Maybe the best chance came in double-overtime, when the quick and agile Maniscalco came flying down the right sideline with the ball on a break. The sophomore’s pass to an open Hallsworth went too far, however, and soon the period ended and it was on to the next round.
With the lights now on, the teams alternated attempts at scoring from a penalty corner set, with Bonny Eagle going first as the result of a coin toss. On their third attempt, Johnson shot the ball toward the net and Delaney was there to make sure it went in.
The Rams attempt to even the score fell short.
“I thought we dominated most of the game, but they came back in corners,” said Hallsworth. “They had a really good season, so they deserved it.”
“It was an unbelievable game,” Bourget said. “We were so evenly matched. It could have gone either way.”
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