While the rest of her team huddled with their coach Saturday, Lauren Hagerman was alone near the bench, coughing and drinking water. The Scarborough senior had been sick all week and was out late the night before on the senior class trip.
But when the whistle blew and the action began again, Hagerman was out on the field, showing no signs of fatigue. In fact, her eight goals spearheaded the Red Storm attack, and her team came back against top-seeded Massabesic on the road and scored with two seconds left to win, 15-14.
“We just stepped it up and played as a team and kept talking and communicating,” said Scarborough’s Brittany Kane, who put in the game winner. “We knew we were a better team. We put it together.”
The victory put the Red Storm (8-6) in the regional final Wednesday against Noble (7-7), a squad that split a pair of regular-season meetings with Scarborough. The winner will advance to the state final Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium.
The game was a thrilling, neck-and-neck affair for much of the second half. In the final 15 minutes there were three lead changes and five ties. Neither squad was about to go down without a struggle.
“I knew that Massabesic would be all over the ground balls,” Scarborough coach Marcia Wood said. “They’re a good team. They’re scrappy and in the first part of the first half they outplayed us.”
The Mustangs built a 6-2 lead midway through the first half, with Katrina Mansfield and Kristy Kendrick each netting a pair for the hosts. Red Storm goalkeeper Jessica Bolton made several stops that prevented the deficit from being even larger.
Hagerman had two goals of her own in that stretch, but her team was being outplayed.
“I called a timeout and told the girls, ‘I warned you about the ground balls. They’re going to hustle,'” said Wood. “We came back out on fire.”
When Red Storm center Amy Brigham scored in the waning seconds of the first half, her team was down by just one, 8-7, and the horse race was on.
Kendrick’s fourth goal and Tayla Martin’s second each put Massabesic ahead by two early in the second half, but the Scarborough came back both times.
With 12:16 to go, Hagerman went high to give her team their first lead of the evening, 11-10. Mustangs attacker Brittany Benton rushed and scored just over a minute later to knot the game again, and Jessica Knight came with a charge of her own, seesawing the score back in Massabesic’s favor.
Two more from Hagerman followed, but they were countered by another from Knight, who eluded defenders and seemed determined to score.
“I (told myself), ‘I don’t care how many people are standing in front of me, I’m putting the ball in the net,'” Knight said.
With five minutes to go the score was 13-13. Scarborough’s Marisa Hebert netted her third, but again Knight came back to tie it, this time with just 35 seconds on the clock.
Both teams tried desperately to get control of the ball, and the Red Storm did, bringing it down into the Massabesic end. Mustangs goalkeeper Eliza Dufort was able to stave off an attack as time dwindled, but with only six seconds remaining a whistle gave Scarborough the ball in a free position 15 feet out.
When the whistle resumed play, Kane brought the ball in and was met by a wall of no fewer than five opponents. But she reacted quickly, brought her stick up and deposited the ball in the top left corner with just two seconds remaining.
“I knew I had to shoot,” Kane said, “so I just let it go and hoped it went in.”
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