FREEPORT — Fifth-seeded Freeport advanced to the Class B South girls’ soccer quarterfinals for the second straight year, holding on for a 2-1 win in a preliminary-round game Friday afternoon against No. 11 Lincoln Academy.

The Falcons (11-4) built a 2-0 lead before Chelsea Williams scored a sensational goal for the Eagles (6-7-2) with less than eight minutes remaining.

Freeport will play No. 3 Greely (11-3) at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Cumberland.

The Falcons played without their head coach, Elayna Girardin. David Intraversato, who is listed on the roster as assistant coach, took her place.

When asked about Girardin’s absence, Athletic Director Craig Sickels said: “David Intraversato is coaching the team today in place of Elayna.” He declined to comment any further.

Intraversato said the team had a good week of practice.

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“Everybody gets amped for the tournament, so we just had to keep them composed with all our touches, all our passing,” he said. “We just had to stay focused.”

“We were all business,” Freeport midfielder Jessie Driscoll said. “We needed to get it done and go to the next round, and we were able to come out with the win.”

Statistically, the Falcons had a huge edge, especially in the second half. Freeport had a 20-10 advantage in shots and an 8-3 advantage in corners.

“We had a tough time keeping up,” Lincoln Academy Coach Donovan York said. “We were trying to hold our back line as much as we could and tried not to play back too far so it wouldn’t turn into a shooting gallery.

“We tried to make them earn their shots by trying to control the middle of the field and get control of those through passes. They kind of wore us down. Our bench isn’t very deep. We’ve got some injuries we’re dealing with, but the girls played tough.”

Cat Gould opened the scoring in the 28th minute. After receiving the ball from Tara Migliaccio, Gould stepped past a defender and beat keeper Kortney McKenna from less than 10 yards.

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Driscoll made it 2-0 about nine minutes into the second half when she blasted a shot from just beyond the bubble after intercepting a clearing pass.

“I just saw I had an open shot, so I thought, ‘take it’,” she said. “Actually, I didn’t even have time to think about it.”

Freeport maintained its two-goal lead until Williams launched a rocket from outside the box, after the ball was deflected back to her following her corner kick from the left side.

About four minutes earlier, Caroline Fowler tried to put the ball into an open net behind Freeport keeper Carly Intraversato, but defender Johanna Bogue Marlowe knocked the ball away.

“Our girls battled tough, but (Freeport) is a very good team,” York said. “We took a chance by playing four backs, four middies and two up front for quite a while. We were kind of cautious.”


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