Season ends on a kick
KASEY CROMWELL, left, battles a Waynflete defender Tuesday in Wiscasset. Wiscasset battled Waynflete, the defending Class C champs, all night but lost the game, 4-3, on penalty kicks. BEN BULKELEY/Wiscasset Newspaper
KASEY CROMWELL, left, battles a Waynflete defender Tuesday in Wiscasset. Wiscasset battled Waynflete, the defending Class C champs, all night but lost the game, 4-3, on penalty kicks. BEN BULKELEY/Wiscasset Newspaper
After 110 minutes of brutal, physical soccer in the freezing cold, two things became clear:
The Wiscasset High School girls varsity soccer team was every bit the equal to the defending champion Waynflete and a normal goal was most likely not going to bounce in.
In the end, it took 10 penalty kicks for a winner to emerge and after the dust had settled it was Waynflete that had secured the 4-3 victory to end Wiscasset's season Tuesday.
On a night filled with dramatic moments it was all too fitting to have the game and one season end on the last penalty kick of the evening as temperatures slid below freezing.
The teams battled each other in a hard-fought game, in which Wiscasset's momentum was occasionally stifled by penalties and the solid play of goalie Juliana Harwood.
But, the Wolverines would not be outdone; Kayla Gordon played a game for the ages in goal for Wiscasset. She submitted several highlight reel-worthy stops on corner kicks through the 110 minutes, and snuffed out nearly every Waynflete attack that came her way.
Wiscasset actually mounted an early attack and spent the first minutes of the game hammering Waynflete on its own end, but the Flyers were able to find their footing and strike back.
October 25, 1-0
Although neither Kasey Cromwell nor Sarah Hanley was sure about whose foot was responsible for the kick, both seniors and their team are happy nonetheless.
Wiscasset was able to win its playoff opener October 25 on the kick in overtime and lift Wiscasset over Lisbon, 1-0.
The play unfolded as Cromwell was finally able to gain a little ground on stingy Greyhound defense and bring the ball into the box where she unloaded a screaming kick. The kick ricocheted off Lisbon goalie Alexandra Sult and skittered on the edge of goal – half-in and half-out – before Hanley ended any uncertainty to which side by drilling the ball all the way through.
“It had to go in,” Cromwell said. “I was thinking 'This is it. It has to go in; I'm tired.'”
Hanley said there was no way she was going to let the ball eke out on a night when offense was hard to come by.
“I wasn't sure if it bounced off the goalie or the crossbar,” she said. “I jumped and made sure it went in.”
Cromwell's was one of 28 shots for the Wolverines against five for Lisbon. Sult, who as a freshman was playing in her first playoff game, was able to stifle and stymy the Wolverines for 86 minutes and 51 seconds.
“We knew we had to put a lot of pressure on them,” Hanley said. “We just kept playing hard and kept the pressure up.”
The win pits the fourth ranked Wolverines against Saturday's winner of the Mt. Abram and Waynflete tilt at a later date.
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