SACO — Nearly every time the Thornton Academy field hockey team lined up for a penalty corner Wednesday night, the same supporter shouted out, “Every corner’s a goal!”

The Trojans must have heard him.

Grace Decker scored on Thornton’s second penalty corner and Libby Pomerleau scored on its sixth – with 1:10 left – to send the fourth-seeded Trojans past fifth-ranked Falmouth 2-1 in a rain- and wind-swept Western Class A quarterfinal at Hill Stadium.

Thornton moves on to a regional semifinal with No. 1 Scarborough on Saturday. The Red Storm advanced Wednesday night with a 3-1 victory over No. 8 Biddeford.

Each team enjoyed long spans of momentum, with Falmouth holding an edge in shots (13-12), and Thornton putting more shots on goal (6-2). Both teams had six penalty corners, but it was Thornton that took advantage of those opportunities.

“That’s what it came down to,” Falmouth Coach Robin Haley said. “They have an excellent goalie. We had our opportunities but we just couldn’t put away the shots.”

Advertisement

Back Grace Decker put the Trojans (12-3) ahead just seven minutes in, taking a pass from Carli Legere and driving in a shot from 15 yards.

Thornton Coach Lori Smith said she worked on penalty corners this week. “We changed quite a bit,” she said. “We hadn’t scored on a corner this season and both goals tonight were on corners, so that was really nice.”

Falmouth (11-5) countered midway through the second half when Sydney Bell got free and hit a hard shot from 10 yards to beat Thornton keeper Isabella Capozzi (4 saves). Falmouth seemed energized, holding momentum for another 10 minutes.

“I’m very proud of how my girls played. To be down by one early, it would have been easy to shut down and they didn’t,” Haley said. “They stuck with it, tied it and made it exciting.”

With about five minutes to go, Thornton regained its edge and applied steady pressure in the Yachtsmen’s third.

“We tried to keep the ball wide and use all that space because they like to play it in the middle,” Pomerleau said. “We tried to emphasize using the wings. It seemed to work, we got up the field a lot, working passes in and out.”

Advertisement

Pomerleau broke through with 1:10 to go, collecting a pass on the Trojans’ final penalty corner, hammering a shot from 15 yards past Falmouth keeper Caroline Dyhrberg (2 saves).

“Grace Pickering, our inserter, passed it to (Legere), and she just saw me open,” Pomerleau said. “I just shot for goal, looking for the post player or for it to go in. It went in.”

Now it’s on to unbeaten Scarborough, which pulled out a 1-0 overtime victory against the Trojans on Sept. 26. Thornton has rolled up seven straight victories since that loss.

“We’re very excited (to play Scarborough),” Pomerleau said. “We played really hard in that game and it could have gone either way. They got lucky on that last corner to win but we’re very eager to go back and show them what we’ve got.”

SCARBOROUGH 3, BIDDEFORD 1: The Red Storm (15-0) took a 3-0 halftime lead and cruised past the Tigers (7-9) at Scarborough.

Maddie Dobecki, Lily Nygren and Abby Walker scored unassisted goals. Sophany Srey answered for Biddeford in the second half.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.