Bailey Coffin kicked off the Falcons’ scoring early against Sacopee Valley on Friday afternoon, Sept. 25, then earned her second of the day in the later going as Freeport zoomed to a 5-0 victory over the visiting Hawks.
“Huge, huge,” said Freeport head coach Marcia Wood of the win. “We’ve had a few games that we felt we should’ve won, and we didn’t. We were down and out for a few games, trying to figure out what worked.”
Prior to locking talons with the Hawks on Friday, the Falcons had dropped three straight, most recently succumbing 2-1 at Lake Region. “Coming off that game,” said Wood, “we were very frustrated with the outcome. So I was hoping the girls would come out and use that fire and go.”
Falcon Alexa Koenig put her team on top 2-0 with 8:33 to play in the first half; five minutes later, fellow Freeporter Lauren Schenker bumped the score to 3-0. That’s where the tally stuck until the second half, when Coffin spoke up once more for 4-0. Last – but certainly not least – Emily Randall iced the cake with just 4:44 remaining. 5-0 the final.
Koenig and Randall each had an assist in the game as well.
“We’re a decent team,” said Wood; “we just have not played a full game. This was our first full game of playing hard…Today, we stuck with it all the way through.”
Wood elaborated on one of her girls’ difficulties in recent weeks – namely, losing focus and poise, especially late in any given half.
“We’ve had the rotten luck of, in a bunch of our games, getting scored on in the last three minutes of each half,” she said. “Poland scored in overtime, Gray scored with two minutes left as my captain was passed out; Yarmouth scored their first goal with literally 30 seconds left of the first half. Lake Region did the same thing.”
Wood seized on the opportunity to turn her girls’ substantial lead on Sacopee Valley into a teaching moment:
“I said, ‘I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but we’ve been having this streak of, last three minutes, last four minutes, losing it. No more freakouts. You’ve got a four-goal lead, so being in there, in a scrum in front of the cage, defensively, you should not be freaking out.”
Freeport improves to 3-5 on the W, and vaults into 10th place in B South – just inside the playoffs bracketing. The Falcons sit one slot behind Gray-New Gloucester (5-5) and one ahead of Poland (2-7); the team visits York on Monday the 28th and hosts Greely on Wednesday the 30th, after the Tri-Town Weekly’s print deadlines.
York, at 8-0, is far and away the No. 1 squad in B South, so Freeport faces a tall challenge in the Wildcats, who’ve scored 31 goals thus far, while only relinquishing six.
Sacopee Valley, seventh in C South, drops to 5-3 with the loss. The Hawks host Old Orchard Beach on Monday and travel to Traip on Wednesday.
Freeporter Bailey Karnes cuts away from Sacopee Valley’s Abby Mosson in the Falcons’ 5-0 win on Friday afternoon.
Freeport’s Grace Schnyder jets forward on the attack against visiting Sacopee Valley on Friday.
The Falcon’s Kelsey Williams clashes with a Sacopee opponent.
Freeporter Maya Eagan drives deep into Sacopee territory.
Lexi Peacock vies with a Sacopee opponent for control of the ball on Friday afternoon.
Falcon Lauren Schenker takes a shot at the Hawks’ keeper.
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