Girls lacrosse
Brunswick 12
Scarborough 13
Brunswick coach Beth Caputi had it right when, after Saturday’s Class A state championship girls lacrosse game against Scarborough, she looked out on the field at sun-drenched field at Fitzpatrick Stadium and said: “I think they’re not a team that should’ve lost five games in a row in the regular season.”
Judging by Saturday’s performance and the three preceding it, Caputi, in her sixth year at Brunswick, could not have been more right.
The Red Storm lost five in a row – to Yarmouth, Thornton Academy, Noble, Kennebunk and Greely – to close out the season. They limped into the playoffs as the No. 5 seed in Western Class A.
Then, as if coach Marcia Wood flipped the main power line on, Scarborough came alive.
Wood’s squad beat No. 4 Portland in the Western quarterfinals, then knocked off No. 1 Massabesic in the semis and got revenge on No. 3 Noble in the finals.
The final exam was Saturday against Eastern champ Brunswick. Scarborough rallied from two goals down to win that game, 13-12, in double overtime.
“I think by the time the playoffs came everyone was really sick of losing,” said Wood. “(Seniors) Lauren (Hagerman) and Brittany White were just relentless that they weren’t going to lose, saying, ‘We’re going to win a state championship.’ And they really took it upon themselves to step it up a little bit.”
Hagerman went off for eight goals as Scarborough dug itself out of a four-goal hole to beat Massabesic, 15-14. She added six more in a 12-8 win over Noble.
Saturday’s win was more of a team effort, though. Scarborough didn’t know much about Brunswick, so it was forced to learn on the fly.
“I saw them during warm-ups, and I said, ‘Oh my god, we have our work cut out for us today,'” said Wood. “And I said, ‘It’s going to be a battle right until the end.’ I kept telling them at halftime, ‘I need 25 more minutes out of you.’
“And then at the end, I told them, ‘I need six more minutes out of you.’ And then overtime, sudden death was just, ‘You’ve just got to push it.’ And they said, ‘We’re not losing.'”
And they didn’t, despite trailing by at least a pair of goals on three separate occasions.
Brunswick went up 1-0 just 5:40 into the game when Lily Shipley bounced a shot past Scarborough goalie Jessica Bolton.
The Red Storm answered right back less than three minutes later, though. Jess Baker put a high shot past Brunswick goalie Steph Fisher with 16:41 to go.
The Dragons responded and, by the 13:56 mark, they had built their first two-goal lead.
With the get-to-know-each-other meet-and-greet over, a scoring frenzy ensued. Over the final 14 minutes of the half, the teams combined for seven more goals.
Scarborough tied the game at three on goals by Marisa Hebert and White, but fell behind again 7-4 by the end of the half.
When Brunswick went up 4-3, Scarborough’s Baker tied it. But when the Dragons went up 5-4, then 6-4 and, finally, 7-4, things didn’t look good for the Red Storm.
So adjustments were made.
“I told them, ‘I know we’re a run-and-gun team, and I know we’re a passing team. We can do it all,'” said Wood. “So, I said, ‘You know what? The passing’s not working right now. Let’s get the ball on our stick, and let’s go to goal. Let’s get some goals and make ourselves feel better. Then, if we need to settle it we can.'”
According to Caputi, Scarborough also adjusted defensively.
“What caused us to change the way we played was they were so smothering in the midfield,” she said. “We’re really a midfield transition team. We move the ball to the midfield really, really nicely usually, and today we just couldn’t do it.”
The Red Storm clawed back with three goals in the first eight minutes of the second – Brunswick scored one – to make it 8-7. White, Hagerman and Baker all scored.
Once again, though, the Dragons extended the lead to two goals. Mary Vaughan made it 9-7 with 13:56 to play.
The Lady Red Storm still had some energy left. Hebert scored three straight goals in the game’s final 3:25 to give Scarborough its first lead of the game.
The Dragons may have scored with seven seconds to go to force overtime, but Scarborough had the momentum.
The teams both had two goals in the first non-sudden death overtime half, and both held each other scoreless in the second half, but White ended the season – and the improbable playoff run – with the game-winner 1:50 into double overtime.
“It was an awesome pass from Lauren (Hagerman),” said White. “We kind of have an eye connection. I knew when she was going to pass me the ball, so I made the cut. She passed it to me, and I just finished it.
“We didn’t have the best record, but we proved to everyone that we could do it.”
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