SOUTH BERWICK — Any soccer team that enters as an underdog in the playoffs usually needs the bounces to go its way ”“ a ball off the post instead of into the corner of the net, a shot that just eludes the fingertips of the opposing goalie, a ball that bounces low instead of high, or vice versa.
On Wednesday night against third-seeded Marshwood, sixth-ranked Kennebunk didn’t get that rub of the green, and it made all the difference.
The Rams saw several opportunities go begging in a first half they largely controlled, then allowed in an untimely goal with five minutes to go before the break. The Hawks added another goal thanks to a kind bounce early in the second half, and a late Alyssa Weigle strike was too little, too late as the Hawks beat the Rams 2-1 in a Western Class A girls soccer quarterfinal at Marshwood High School.
The Hawks (11-3-1) advance to play No. 2 Scarborough ”“ which beat seventh-seeded Falmouth 6-0 in another quarterfinal Wednesday ”“ in a semifinal on Saturday, while Kennebunk ends its season at 8-5-3.
“I think that the girls came out and played a really good game,” Kennebunk coach John Dolan said. “If we reflect on some games this season, we’ve played well in different phases of the game at different times, and tonight I thought we played a complete game. We defended well, we moved the ball around the field well and had some really good opportunities.”
The best of the bunch came with 14 minutes left in the first half, when forward Leah Dumas was able to win the ball thanks to a hard tackle just outside the Marshwood box.
Dumas slid a pass over to Cara McCluskey, whose left-footed shot from the top of the 18-yard box looked to be curling just inside the right post before Hawks goalie Emily Robida intervened with a diving save.
“That save in the first half when she flew to her left and pushed that ball out, there’s probably keepers at the collegiate level who aren’t making that save,” Dolan said. “She captured a little bit of lightning in a bottle there and made that save, and that changed the game. We go up 1-0 there and it’s a completely different game.”
The Hawks managed just one shot on goal and saw very little of the ball inside the Kennebunk end during the opening 35 minutes, but found themselves up 1-0 with 5:28 to go in the first half thanks to a long ball over the top, Marshwood’s preferred method of attack in the first half.
The Rams defense had been dealing with the balls over their head comfortably for most of the half, but this time goalkeeper Kyra Schwartzman came out to the edge of the box on the right in an attempt to knock it away. Marshwood’s Marin Smith beat her to it, then sent a cross into the box, where Megan McLean’s header was directed to the far post and finished by Hannah Fife into the open goal.
“The goal that put them up 1-0 was a little bit of a comedy of errors,” Dolan said. “We misplayed the ball in the box, we misplayed the cross and we misplayed the back-post runner.”
“Everyone was a little nervous at first,” said Marshwood central defender Lydia Carlson. “Once we got that first goal, everyone settled in and the second half it was more on their end.”
Marshwood started to expand and widen its attack after the break, and the Hawks scored another goal five minutes into the second half, again thanks to some hard work down the wing by Smith, who ran onto a pass and crossed the ball across the ground to a waiting McLean on the near post.
McLean whiffed on her shot, but the ball bounced off her planted leg and straight up in the air. Seeing an opportunity, Schwartzman came out in an attempt to snatch the ball, but McLean out-jumped the goalkeeper and headed the ball into the net to make things 2-0.
“That wasn’t on purpose,” McLean said. “It was a little miskick. I saw her coming out and I kind of just closed my eyes and headed the ball.”
The Hawks went on to control most of the remaining 35 minutes, as a defense led by Carlson and Paige Singer kept Kennebunk’s quick transition game ”“ which the Rams had used to good effect for most of the opening half ”“ at bay.
But just when the two-goal deficit was looking like too much to overcome, the Rams got one back out of nothing with 3:12 to play when they won a free kick 45 yards from the Marshwood goal. Weigle stepped to the ball and sent a booming kick toward the goal, where it dropped just under the crossbar and over the leaping save attempt by Robida.
With just one minute left, Kennebunk pressed for an equalizer and earned a throw-in deep inside the Hawks’ end, but the Marshwood defense was able to clear its lines and run out the rest of the clock to preserve the one-goal win.
“We let in a couple of soft goals, and they’re a quality team and they did what they needed to do to win,” Dolan said. “If I’m honest, we probably outplayed them today and probably deserved a little bit better of a result, but that’s the way the game goes sometimes. Sometimes you don’t get the results, and these girls have nothing to be ashamed of.”
— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.
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