WINDHAM — Ciera Berthiaume and the Windham High girls’ soccer team have developed a real flair for the dramatic.

For the second straight game the top-ranked defending champs fell behind by two goals and rallied for a 3-2 win. Monday, the Eagles beat No. 4 Thornton Academy when Berthiaume put in the rebound of her hard shot with 9:09 left in the first overtime of a Western A regional semifinal.

“I just knew that we needed one so it was all or nothing and I was going to do everything I had to get that goal,” Berthiaume said.

Windham (15-0-1) will host No. 2 Scarborough (14-1-1) Wednesday in the regional final.

Scarborough gave Windham a rare test in the regular season when the two teams played to a 1-1 tie at Windham on Oct. 15.

The playoffs have been a different story for Windham.

In the quarterfinals, No. 9 Portland led 2-0 until Berthiaume started the comeback in the 57th minute. Jenna Soucy tied it and Berthiaume won it late in regulation.

On Monday, Thornton (13-3) took a 1-0 lead in the 27th minute when Tori Daigle rushed up the left side, cut across the field to get in front of the goal and finished with a hard shot through a screen.

Daigle made it 2-0 early in the second half when she punched in a cross by Jessica Haskell. It was Daigle’s 24th goal of the season, tying the Thornton Academy single-season record set two years ago by Amanda Arnold.

“Coming into the game you knew Tori Daigle was a force to be reckoned with,” said Windham’s Shannon Valente, who had the task of marking Daigle. “There’s always things you could have done better but I would say she’s a great player and she made some great plays and sometimes you can’t do much about it.”

Valente was sure her team would battle back.

“We don’t go easy. We put up a fight. Ciera especially, I think in tight situations like that she works well under pressure,” Valente said.

Sure enough, the next 10 minutes seemed to be all Berthiaume attacking the hard-working Thornton defense of Kate Senechal, Kaitlyn McCrum, Alexandra Pettaway and Erin Tangney.

The Eagles didn’t score during that flurry, but momentum turned. Thornton keeper Lexi Nason made four of her 15 saves during that span, Windham’s Maggie Symonds hit the outside of the post and teammate Melissa Morton rang a blast off the crossbar.

“Once we get one then the offense starts to flow like a river,” Berthiaume said.

Berthiaume got the Eagles on the board when she ran onto a slick pass up the middle by Cassie Symonds and touched the ball past a charging Nason in the 67th minute.

In a repeat of the Eagles’ quarterfinal win, Soucy tied it against Thornton. She took a pass from Holly Spencer and banged home a shot from the right wing with 9:04 left in regulation.

Thornton lost to Windham in two overtimes in last season’s regional final.

“I’m proud of them,” Thornton Coach Chris Kohl said. “When you’re playing as hard as you can, you can live with that, and you know that (Windham) is a really good team and they would come back. Maybe if Portland hadn’t been up on them 2-0 they wouldn’t have felt as confident in coming back.”

Related Stories