FALMOUTH — With regulation time running down, Kennebunk High girls’ lacrosse scoring standout Kyra Schwartzman cut toward goal, raised her stick, saw a pass come her way – and missed the ball.

“When I came off the field I was pretty mad at myself but it doesn’t matter because we still had the chance to go to overtime,” Schwartzman said.

Schwartzman got another chance 32 seconds into the second three-minute overtime period. This time she caught Olivia Sandford’s pass cleanly and rattled a shot off both sides of the cage before it bounced behind Falmouth goalie Mary Budri for the 7-6 Kennebunk victory.

“Kyra made an awesome cut inside and I had the lane to feed her,” Sandford said.

Both teams entered the game with 10-0 records. Both rallied from multi-goal deficits.

Kennebunk in all likelihood has clinched the top seed in Class B South with one regular-season game against North Yarmouth Academy remaining. Falmouth (10-1) probably will be the No. 2 seed.

Advertisement

That means a rematch of last year’s regional championship won by Kennebunk could be in the offing.

“Honestly I’m so pumped that we don’t have that weight of having a perfect season, that undefeated season, on our shoulders going into playoffs,” Falmouth Coach Kait Johnson said. “I definitely see us contending for the (regional) and states this year so we’ll get them on the flip side.”

Falmouth, which starts four freshmen, was the first team to lead senior-dominated Kennebunk. It led 3-1 when Sydney Bell converted on a fast-break chance with 4:08 left in the first half. Bell earlier assisted on goals by Devon Sarazin and Olivia Stucker.

“We learned a lot about ourselves today,” Kennebunk Coach Annie Barker said. “We had not been down before and we now know we can come back.”

Kennebunk tied the game by halftime on goals from Schwartzman and Jenny Bush, then opened up a 6-3 lead in the second half on one goal by Schwartzman and two from Carly Sandler

Then the Rams learned that other top teams – like Falmouth – can also rally.

Advertisement

Sarazin threaded an assist to London Bernier, who converted on a quick shot with 5:19 to play.

Then Sarazin dodged by defenders in a rush through the midfield that eventually drew a shooting space violation on the recovering Kennebunk defense. Sarazin converted with 4:01 left.

Olivia Stucker tied the game 15 seconds later after Bell negated Bush’s draw control and Falmouth came up with a scrambling 50-50 ball.

“When the pressure got tough, we kind of, some of us, started to unravel,” Barker said. “So we’ll work on a lot of composure things because we’ve never been tested that way mentally.”

Barker dismissed the notion that being undefeated adds pressure to her team. What could be a real factor in a potential rematch is Falmouth’s team speed, which played a role in slowing Kennebunk’s lethal transition game.

“Our ride is pretty tough and we’re a very fast team so we mark up well and we stop ball,” Johnson said. “We turn people with our feet and we body up with our forearm, not our stick.”


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.