Mt. Blue’s Bree Griffin, center, celebrates with her teammates after she scored the game-winning goal to beat Mt. Ararat in a penalty corner shootout Tuesday in a Class A North quarterfinal in Topsham. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

TOPSHAM — Three deep breaths are all Mt. Blue’s Bree Griffin needs to calm down during a tense moment.

The senior captain was doing that routine a lot during Tuesday’s Class A North field hockey quarterfinal against Mt. Ararat, which was decided with a penalty corner shootout after being tied since early in the second half.

Griffin scored on a rebound following a save during the Cougars’ first attempt to give fifth-seeded Mt. Blue a 2-1 win over the fourth-seeded Eagles.

“I thought, ‘It’s now or never,'” Griffin said. “‘I have to get it in if I don’t want this to be my last field hockey game ever, I have to do it right now.’ So I just whammed it in as hard as I could. Felt like a big relief once it happened, because I was super nervous and stressed going into those three overtimes, but it was a big weight off my shoulders once we got it in.”

The Eagles (10-5) were given an opportunity to match, but the Mt. Blue (11-4) defense forced a miss.

“We came to play, and we played with so much heart, and they never gave up,” Mt. Ararat head coach Krista Chase said. “There are no regrets. That’s what we asked for.”

About three minutes in to the second overtime period, Mt. Ararat’s Kamryn Chase had a shot from the top of the circle that went in the goal but was disallowed.

“I’m not really sure (why the goal was disallowed),” Chase said. “I guess they said it was high, but it went off the goalie’s pads, so we thought it was a goal. But from their perspective, it was high.”

Kamryn Chase scored the game’s first goal on a penalty corner from Krystah Coen 1:03 before halftime.

Mt. Blue’s Bree Griffin, center, tries to dribble past Mt. Ararat’s Addison Chubbuck (1) and Krystah Coen (9). Griffin scored the game-winning goal during penalty corner shootouts. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

Despite having an overall advantage on penalty corners (13-6) and shots on goal (4-1), the Cougars struggled in the first half to take advantage of quality possessions. Alyssa Parker scored Mt. Blue’s first goal off an assist from Kali Judkins just over a minute into the third quarter.

“(I had) to calm them down and rein them in, because they were getting calls they don’t like to get on themselves,” Mt. Blue head coach Julie Lajoie said. “Just had to keep the frustration levels lower. We try to focus on the controllables, try to let go (of) the uncontrollables and keep them clear-headed. And they did a pretty good job resetting every time, every quarter.”

With the win, Mt. Blue moves on to face No. 1 Skowhegan (13-2) in the semifinal round on Saturday. The River Hawks defeated No. 8 Lewiston 3-0 on Tuesday.