WATERBORO — With 10 seconds remaining in the half Wednesday night, Massabesic goalie Lydia Wasina stopped a Marshwood shot.
It was the only time her service was required in the first half.
Behind a stifling defense and three goals from Maddie Drain, the top-seeded Mustangs beat second-ranked Marshwood 6-2 to win the Class A South girls’ lacrosse championship.
Massabesic (15-0) will face Messalonskee (14-1), a 7-6 overtime winner in Class A North against Windham, on Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland in a rematch of last year’s state title game.
“I thought it was going to be a really close game but we held them,” said Drain. “They’re a great team but I thought we did really well holding them for as long as we did.”
Massabesic led 5-0 at halftime after outshooting the Hawks 14-5 and forcing 11 turnovers.
Eighteen minutes elapsed before Marshwood (11-4) even attempted a shot, and then only from free position. It sailed wide.
“Our defense was really strong,” said attack Josie Ring. “We knew we had something special when we came out of that locker room.”
Massabesic and Marshwood met in late April in South Berwick and the Mustangs prevailed, 9-3.
On Wednesday, they jumped ahead 1-0 less than two minutes into the game on a goal from free position by Morgan Pike.
“You always want to break the ice early,” Massabesic Coach Brooks Bowen said. “It’s not imperative. I mean, the game is very long but it just feels good on the sideline to have that first one in. The jitters seemed to subside a little bit.”
By contrast, Marshwood didn’t avert the shutout until Olivia Melton converted a feed from Luci Albers with 7:16 remaining and Massabesic ahead 6-0. Marin Smith added the final goal from free position with less than a minute to play.
“We played hard,” Marshwood Coach Bernie Marvin said. “Our defense played great. Goaltending was excellent. Our transition was fine. But our unforced turnovers were pretty devastating.”
Marshwood finished with 19 turnovers to Massabesic’s seven. Goalie Skyler Amsden kept the Hawks in contention with 12 saves. Wasina finished with three.
After Drain cut through the middle to score her first goal seven minutes into the game, she and Ring scored in a 27-second span to give Massabesic a 4-0 lead before the midway mark of the first half.
Taylor Manning made it 5-0 from Hallie Benton with 38 seconds left in the half. Pike and Cailyn Forrester each had two assists.
“Our defense isn’t nearly at the full strength we could be,” said Emma Desrochers, who anchored a stellar back four for Massabesic that included Madeline Beauchesne, Kaylee St. Laurent and Abi Chaves.
“There’s a lot of improvement still happening and a lot we still need to work on. But we kept our feet moving, we saw their cuts, we were able to anticipate and we just got after it.”
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or
Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
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