PORTLAND — The Massabesic girls lacrosse team’s season ended just like it began ”“ with a hard-fought, hotly contested, one-goal game against Cheverus.

Unfortunately for the Mustangs, this time, in Saturday’s Class A state championship game, they came up just short.

Cheverus’ Meredith Willard scored two goals to break a 6-6 tie, and the Stags survived some late-game turnovers to secure their first-ever state championship in an 8-7 thriller at a sun-soaked Fitzpatrick Stadium.

“Just overall it was a great game,” said Willard, a junior captain. “Massabesic’s a very good team and they have such a good defense, and they don’t give up. That’s definitely the sign of a good team.”

The win avenges a 7-6, four-overtime loss to Massabesic back in the season opener on April 23, with the nearly two months in the interim doing little to separate the sides.

“We always have a close, competitive game with Massabesic,” Cheverus coach Jamie Chamberlain said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s rain, snow, sun, wind, early in the season, late in the season, whenever ”“ I think our two teams could play in the parking lot and it would come down to the final seconds.”

Down 8-6 and fighting a Stags’ stall late, the Mustangs made sure the final minute was dramatic when Alyssa Gilman scored with 57 seconds remaining to pull Massabesic back within one.

After a key Cheverus (13-3) faceoff win, the Mustangs’ Jolena Lampron caused a turnover with 20 seconds left and got the ball up field to Karlie Pike.

With a full head of steam and a path to the goal, it looked like Pike would be able to beat the clock and get one final shot off, but the Stags’ Emily Rodrigue came from behind to knock the ball out of Pike’s stick to kill off the last few seconds.

“I’m very proud of our girls,” Massabesic coach Brooks Bowen said. “They battled all day. They hung in there, they never gave up, and I really thought we were going to trip the trigger there in those closing seconds.

“Great game. Certainly one for the record books.”

Massabesic had taken a 6-5 lead on Heather Everett’s fourth goal of the game with 16:05 to play, but Cheverus scored three straight over the next 14 minutes to take control.

MaryKate Walsh started the rally with a goal in transition off a nice assist from Elyse Caiazzo, and 1:25 later, Willard scored unassisted to give the Stags a 7-6 lead with 12:54 left.

Massabesic won the following draw, but MacKenzie Kidder’s shot was stopped by Cheverus goalie Hope Correia. From there the Stags went into an effective stall, not shooting until the 5:20 mark when Walsh’s shot was saved by Mustangs goalie Krysten Forrester.

But Willard was there to gobble up the loose ball, and again picked up a key ground ball in traffic two minutes later before tallying Cheverus’ eventual game-winner with 2:34 left as Forrester left her net to try to pick off a Caiazzo pass, leaving the net gaping for Willard to score her fourth.

“We’re not unfamiliar with coming out and putting pressure on, but when you get behind in those closing minutes you really have to get out and close those outlets and that opens up the field a little bit,” Bowen said. “But (at) that point, it really wasn’t the next goal that was important, it was getting possession of the ball. The clock was our worst enemy.”

After that Alex Logan was able to win both draws ”“ she helped the Stags control 10 of 17 on the day ”“ to help Cheverus see out the last two and a half minutes.

“We knew that they were pretty good there,” Bowen said of the draw circle. “We’ve worked on it every day for probably the last month, but they’ve got height and some good stick skills around that circle.

“It just didn’t seem like the ball bounced our way too many times. I’m thinking the law of averages is going to play in here at some point in time, but it always just seemed like it was bouncing away from us.”

The Mustangs had gotten the start they wanted, taking a 2-0 lead on a pair of Everett goals as Cheverus turned the ball on each of its first six possessions.

“I think that both games came out a little tight, but we got the ball moving around the offensive end,” Bowen said. “We had a couple good looks there and we just took them and they ended up in the net.

“I thought that, at that point in time, if we could continue the momentum and get a little bit of a lead we were going to make their zone come out and play us, but they came back and evened it up and it was a battle from then on out.”

Chamberlain called a timeout after Everett’s second strike with 12:36 left in the half and his team regrouped, scoring four of the next five goals ”“ two each from Willard and Logan ”“ to take a 4-3 lead.

“I think we finally found our place. Once we called the timeout we had a little bit of time to calm down, catch our breath and settle,” Willard said. “We kept our composure and the jitters finally ran out, our nerves calmed down.”

Massabesic was able to even things up headed into the break on a Haley Binette goal in transition with 16 seconds left in the break, but Abigail Biegel scored just 16 seconds into the second to put her team up 5-4, setting the tone for the rest of the game.

“They had taken the momentum away from us at the end of the half,” said Chamberlain. “So I was very glad we came out and got that next goal.”

The loss ends the Massabesic program’s second-best season at 12-4, and though he was agonizingly close to a second state title, Bowen didn’t hesitate when asked to put his team’s season into perspective.

“It’s a great season for us,” Bowen said. “Working with this group of girls has been phenomenal all year. I’ll be perfectly honest ”“ I wouldn’t trade the win for working with this group.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 323.