March 29, 2024
FIELD HOCKEY

Skowhegan wins fourth consecutive ‘A’ state title Telstar shuts out Stearns to earn ‘C’ championship

PORTLAND – Coach Paula Doughty’s Skowhegan High School Indians annexed their fourth consecutive state Class A field hockey title by virtue of their hard-fought come-from-behind 3-2 win over Bonny Eagle of Buxton at Fitzpatrick Stadium Saturday.

Senior forward Katy LePage’s 32nd goal of the season with 2:39 remaining decided it.

In Class C, Telstar of Bethel claimed its first state title since 1978 as the Rebels scored six first-half goals, four in a span of 10:44, to beat Stearns of Millinocket 6-0. Junior Liz Rosenberg had a pair of goals and junior forward Mallory Brown had a goal and three assists for Telstar.

In the Class A game, Leah Provost’s goal with 15:06 remaining tied the game and set the stage for LePage’s winner that capped a furious second-half rally. LePage’s goal came on Skowhegan’s 14th shot in the second half compared to Bonny Eagle’s one.

“Coach [Doughty] told us we had to play with heart and passion. We all knew what we had to do,” said LePage.

“They kept pushing and pushing [the attack] and we couldn’t retaliate as strong as we had in the first half. They’re a good team. We played as hard as we could, but it just didn’t go our way,” Bonny Eagle senior midfielder Allison Lombardo said.

“They definitely picked it up [in the second half],” said Bonny Eagle junior midfielder Kelly Johnson, whose late first-half goal gave Bonny Eagle a 2-1 lead.

LePage’s game-winner came off a perfectly executed penalty corner that she actually took and put on the stick of Whitney Fortier.

“I put it behind my back to Courtney [Veinotte], she shot it, and Katy got the rebound,” said Fortier.

“It bounced off her [Bonny Eagle goalie Christine Snow] pads and came to me. It actually went behind me. I kind of flicked it in behind me, and it went between her [Snow] and the post,” said LePage, who considered the goal the most important of her four-year career.

“She’s a really good player,” said Snow. “She was always right on the post where she was supposed to be.”

Fortier also figured in the other two Skowhegan goals.

Her long pass into the middle landed on the stick of Provost, who converted from the middle of the circle.

“We had worked on cross shots [to the far post] all week, and it paid off,” said Provost.

Becca Roy tapped in a Fortier pass for a 1-0 Skowhegan lead with 20:54 left in the first half, but Megan Stanley directed the ball behind Skowhegan goalie Carlee Evans with 5:38 remaining and Johnson swept a Leach Scrutchfield pass behind Evans 2:18 later.

“We played their game for a long time, but once we started playing our little passing game, started using our stickwork, and cut off their long ball, that was the whole difference,” said Doughty.

Evans made six saves on 11 shots while Snow finished with seven stops on 24 Indian shots.

In the C final, Telstar outshot Stearns 30-3 and blitzed the Minutemen with six goals over the final 23:17 of the first half.

“It was like a dream,” said Telstar junior forward Kayla Mills, who scored the second goal by tapping a Brown shot into a half-empty cage while positioned at the far post. “Our passes were on and we scored every time we got into the circle. It was amazing. Everything happened like we wanted it to.”

Rosenberg added, “This was our best half of the season.”

Rosenberg’s seventh and eighth goals of the season came directly off Brown penalty corners.

“I was surprised. Most of the season, I didn’t have time to get my shot off. I had quite a bit of time today. I had been practicing getting my shots off fast and hard all week,” said Rosenberg.

Her first goal was a laser inside the post to the right of Stearns sophomore goalie Deanna Michaud and her second, which made it 3-0, was another hard shot that made its way through a maze of players.

Jessie Farrington, Bailey Davis and Brown capped the first-half barrage.

“They had some nice shots. They hit the ball hard,” said Michaud. “We aren’t used to playing on [artificial] turf. I wasn’t used to having to move that fast.”

Stearns coach Lori Lincoln said her Minutemen were victimized by a case of nerves in the first half.

“It was a new experience for them. They didn’t know what to expect,” said Lincoln.


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