YORK — The Class B South field hockey championship game will have a new look on Wednesday. It won’t include York High School.
Senior midfielder Keriah Marston scored on a penalty corner with 10:58 remaining as fifth-ranked Leavitt stunned top-ranked and previously-undefeated York 2-1 in the Class B South semifinals on Monday. It will be the first time since 2007 – when York lost in the quarterfinals to Wells – that the Wildcats are not playing in the regional final.
Instead, it will be the Hornets, 14-3 and in their first final since 2015, against second-ranked Cape Elizabeth, in its first regional final since 2000, at Freeport High at 3 p.m.
York (15-1) had won the last seven regional championships, last losing one to Leavitt in 2012.
“The kids have been working really hard for this,” said Leavitt Coach Wanda Ward-MacLean. “It’s been a lot of years since we’ve been back.”
The Hornets controlled the game throughout. They were more aggressive to the ball and took away the middle of the field with strong play from senior midfielders Eve Martineau and Daisy Twitchell. When Martineau scored on a scrum with 7:15 left in the first, it was the first time the Wildcats trailed in a game this season.
Marston’s winning goal was simply the exclamation point, a floater that came off a penalty corner.
Freshman Maddie Morin inserted the ball from the left of the cage to Martineau. She pushed the ball to the right, drawing the defense to her, then tapped back to Marston on the left. She lifted the ball high into the air and it floated over the York defense and into the far corner of the goal. And the Hornets were in the lead.
“We call it a lollipop,” said Ward-MacLean, noting it was the second time this year Marston had scored on that shot.
Marston practices it daily. It’s not an easy shot to make. The timing has to be perfect.
This one was.
“You can tell,” said Marston. “I watched it midair and I said, ‘That’s one’s going in. That one’s going in.’ ”
York did not threaten in the final minutes and the Hornets swarmed onto the field in celebration at the final buzzer.
“It’s everything we’ve wanted since the seventh grade,” said Leavitt senior goalie Paige DeMascio. “We’ve been talking about this since we were little.”
York had the early advantage, getting two in-close bids on DeMascio in the first three minutes. She stopped both, with Martineau sweeping in behind her after the second save to swat the ball away from an open net.
That, said DeMascio, “set the tone that we could hold them off.”
York appeared to tie the game with 3:19 remaining in the third quarter on a blast by Sage Works. The goal, however, was waved off for being a dangerous play, the shot too high.
Still, with 1:15 remaining, off a penalty corner scramble, Works, a finalist for Miss Maine Field Hockey, tied it during another scramble. York had the momentum but Leavitt didn’t falter.
“The kids were really confident,” said Ward-MacLean. “They knew we were playing well and we just needed to stay strong.”
York Coach Barb Marois was disappointed, but proud here team fought back to tie it.
“We had our moments,” she said. “We just didn’t capitalize on our goal moments when we had the chance. There were a lot of ‘What ifs.’ Right? But you can’t think of those, you have to take it for what it was. It was a battle. And the game-winning goal was a beautiful goal. You have to tip your cap when someone can do that in the pressure of a game like that.”
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