GORHAM — Two freshmen provided the spark for the Biddeford field hockey team Tuesday. And a senior made sure it held up.
Playoff newcomers Cordelia Kane and Emily Hussey had goals, goalie Cadence Goulet made one big stop after another, and No. 3 Biddeford topped No. 2 Gorham 2-1 in the Class A South semifinals at Gorham High School.
“As a senior, it’s my last season, this is my first regional that we’ll be going to. I’m very excited,” said Goulet, who made 13 saves. “We have an amazing team, everyone really pulled through today.”
Biddeford (12-4) fell to Gorham 2-1 in the regular season. The Tigers were ready in the rematch.
“(The key was) being able to match their intensity and play the 60 minutes, and not have any quarters off,” Biddeford Coach Caitlin Tremberth said. “We really had to lay it out there.”
Gorham kept the pressure going through the final minutes, even getting a late goal from Emerson Homa to set up hope for a dramatic comeback, but couldn’t escape the fall en route to finishing 14-2.
“I’m a little bit in shock, I think,” Coach Becky Manson said. “We just had some corner opportunities, had possession of the ball, had some breakaways. We just weren’t able to capitalize on those opportunities.”
Biddeford struck first when Kane took the ball into the circle and, with no traffic around her, snapped a shot that found the net for a 1-0 lead with 3:34 left in the second quarter.
“I was like ‘Oh my God, this can’t be happening,'” Kane said. “We had a lot of opportunities, and any of us could have gotten it. … This could have been anyone’s game. We stepped up and played together.”
Kane was at the center of Biddeford’s next goal as well. She took a pass from Eliza Doyon and hit a shot from the right that Madison Tibbals (12 saves) stopped with her pad. The rebound kicked over to Hussey on the left side, however, and the freshman wasted no time knocking in the rebound for a 2-0 lead with 5:46 to go in the third.
Hussey credited working with assistant coach Suraiya Gobeil for the goal.
“She helped me with my body positioning on the post, and it helped me a lot in that moment,” Hussey said. “It was a relief … to see it go in.”
While building the lead, Biddeford defenders also were diligent in containing Gorham’s offense, a high-powered unit that had two 20-goal scorers this season in Homa and Brooke Farquhar.
“(We wanted to) at least give them the numbers versus the numbers,” Tremberth said. “If they had four up, we had to make sure we had four back … and not let them go on those breakaways.”
Gorham still brought the pressure with 10 corners, and when the Rams threatened, Goulet held firm. She made a big stop on a corner late in the third, denied Homa on back-to-back shots late in the fourth, and provided a highlight with a diving save that prevented Grace Cunningham from stuffing in the Rams’ first goal with just over two minutes left.
“(There were) a lot of mistakes on my end (in the first game),” Goulet said. “I messed up the first time, now I need to prove myself. … In my head, I was preparing all week.”
Gorham finally solved Goulet when Hannah Bickford smacked a shot from the right side that Homa redirected from the left doorstep with 1:08 to go. Even in dire position, the Rams weren’t finished, as they brought the ball into the circle a final time before the buzzer sounded prior to a final shot.
“We’ve scored goals very quickly,” Manson said. “The belief was always there. It was just a matter of getting it into that circle and getting another shot off. We did it, we just didn’t get it across that line.”
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