SCARBOROUGH – The Cheverus High field hockey team stopped Scarborough’s 29-game winning streak against Western Class A teams, but was it cause for a wild celebration? Not really.
That’s because after two intense overtimes that included Cheverus having the better of the chances, Thursday night’s game ended 1-1.
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“We wanted to win. We’re not happy with a tie. We are happy with the way we played because we left everything on the field,” Cheverus Coach Amy McMullin said.
Cheverus is 10-2-1 and Scarborough, which had not lost to a Western Class A team since the 2011 playoffs, is 12-0-1.
Cheverus scored on Meredith Willard’s sweep-in goal after just 3:35.
Scarborough dominated the rest of the first half, finally tying it on Anna Driscoll’s goal off Maggie Carbin’s crossing pass.
Twice previously, Scarborough had given up the first goal only to respond for 2-1 victories against quality opponents.
In this game, the Red Storm had a 16-3 edge in regulation penalty corners but too often failed to get off a shot attempt that really tested Stag goalie Libby DesRuisseaux (13 saves, six in overtime).
“It was the kind of game to give us a reality check,” Scarborough Coach Kerry Mariello said. “We’re not invincible and I don’t want these girls to think they are. It would have been nice to complete an undefeated season but who cares, really?”
In the two eight-minute seven-on-seven overtimes, Alyssa Souza of Scarborough made six of her nine saves, five on clean break-in bids where she came well out to stuff shots from Emily Michaud (twice) and Elyse Caiazzo (three times) with her pads.
“That’s the name of the game in OT, you get a lot of breakaways,” Mariello said. “She’s practiced those; she’s had our offense to deal with in practice so she has that experience. Now it’s, can she do it in the game situations, and she proved that.”
In the first overtime, Souza flashed a left pad to knock away a Caiazzo rebound bid off a Michaud shot. In the second overtime, Caiazzo walked in on Souza after a quick restart when a Scarborough clearing hit was elevated too much. That shot deflected off Souza’s pads and rolled just wide.
“It was very frustrating that I didn’t get (a goal). There are a lot of things I knew I should have done,” Caiazzo said. “It’s pretty frustrating. I wish I’d got them, but that’s OK.”
In the second half, Cheverus began to gain a fair share of possession, thanks in large part to the ballhawking ability of players like MaryKate Slattery, Abby Ford, Sarah Richter and Kelsey Maselli.
Richter helped preserve the tie with a defensive save, and DesRuisseaux did well to negate a near break-in by Kristen Murray of the Red Storm with four minutes remaining in regulation.
“We knew we had played well in the first half but we knew we had to step up our game,” Caiazzo said. “Good wasn’t enough. We had to play our best game.
“We were having a blast out there. We knew if we just kept pressuring them and giving it everything we’ve got, we can do it.”
Scarborough nearly won in the final second on a late rush by Abby Walker, with the resulting shot drifting just wide as the horn sounded.
Steve Craig can be reached at 791-6413 or at:
scraig@pressherald.com
Twitter: SteveCCraig
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