HAMPDEN

A perfect season was coming to an end no matter which side of the ball the score fell on between the Richmond Bobcats and Ashland High School on Saturday in the Class D Girls Soccer State Championship.

Going into the game, the Bobcats held a 16-0 record while the Hornets sat at 17-0. However, Ashland won its first Gold Ball since 1989 (2-1 over Buckfield), edging out the Bobcats 2-1 in overtime at Hampden Academy.

Saturday’s contest marked the fifth straight state title game for Richmond as the Bobcats won three straight before falling to Washburn in 2013. The Bobcats also defeated Ashland in the 2007 state championship game, 5-2.

“The kids certainly played hard, it took us awhile to get settled down,” Richmond coach Troy Kendrick said about his team’s performance. “It was kind of a rough first half and I have a lot of younger kids and it looked like they had some state game jitters going. We created some good chances, but I think (Ashland’s) team speed gave us some trouble. They seemed to have us backpedaling an awful lot, but we hung in there and I like the way we gutted it out. This is one of the best teams we’ve seen all year.”

“This team doesn’t go very deep (in numbers),” Hornets coach Peter Belskis said of his team after the game. “But every time they have been presented with a challenge they’ve matched it. This is the first time that this team has gone 18-0, boys or girls, it’s never been done before in Ashland and their first and only championship was 25 years ago.”

The first scoring opportunity looked like it was going to happen just 3:18 into the game when Richmond’s Autumn Acord sent a throughball to the right side to Meranda Martin, who then passed across the box to Kelsea Anair, but the ball had too much speed behind it as Anair was just out of the reach of a touch in front of the net.

Goalies produce

Five minutes later, Hornets goaltender Megan Cote was escorted off the field with what was determined later as a broken collar bone that developed during a collision in the box in the beginning of the game on a loose ball situation. Junior Laura Sturgeon took over in net and proved herself the rest of the way, totaling six saves on the day, most of them crucial.

Sturgeon faced her first difficult shot with 19:04 remaining when Martin pushed a give-and-go ball to Anair, who fed it right back to her, driving the ball into the box and crossing it back to Anair, who took a pointblank shot off of Sturgeon and out of harms way. Seven minutes later, the Bobcats were awarded a free-kick on the 18-yard line generated from a tripping penalty. Anair lined up for the shot and fired one toward the top shelf, but Sturgeon leaped up and grabbed it before it had a chance to go in.

Richmond goalie Kelsie Obi walked away with 11 saves in the contest, including a sliding save in the box after facing a two-on-one situation, with a shot coming off the foot of freshman Mackenzie Carter.

“She came through and made some good saves just like she has all year,” Kendrick said his goalkeeper. “She’s a big game player for us because a lot of times she’ll go through games without many touches and I tell her it’s a tough position to play and then we have games like this where every 15 or 20 minutes you have to come up with a good play. It’s tough mentally.”

“(Kelsie) Obi I thought played outstanding in goal,” Belskis said of Richmond’s goalkeeper. “She made some critical saves.”

The deadlock was broken in the second half just 10 minutes in. After the Hornets battled their way into the Richmond 18, Carter collected a loose ball with her back to the net. She turned and fired a shot through the defense and into the right corner pocket of the net for a 1-0 Ashland advantage.

With 24:49 remaining in regulation, the Bobcats tied the game when Martin chased down a fast-moving ball that was headed toward Sturgeon in the box. Martin was shoulder-to-shoulder with a Hornets defenseman and a three-way collision in the box resulted in the ball rolling into the net. A dispute to whether Martin may have collided with the goalie and jarring the ball loose after Sturgeon grabbed it was quickly ruled that she never had possession.

As the game ticked on deadlocked at one goal each, both teams created numerous scoring chances, including a chance for the Hornets to end it with a shot inside the box with 15 seconds remaining, but after a rebound off a diving Obi another shot was taken off a Richmond defender’s head out of the way in front of an open net, forcing overtime.

It took only 4:47 to determine the winner as Carter once again came up on a deflected ball within the box and tucked it into the left side of the net just past the dive of Obi to end it in the Hornets favor.

“Carter, age-wise, is technically an eighth-grader,” Belskis said of his forward. “She bumped ahead in fifthgrade, sixth-grade, so technically she wouldn’t be playing if her mother had kept her back. She also scored the Eastern Maine Championship goal the other night against PVHS (Penobscot Valley High School), she’s an outstanding athlete.”

The Bobcats will only graduate four seniors from their current squad and Kendrick hopes the success his team has had will continue down the road.

“They’re a great bunch of kids to work with,” he said. “I had a lot of fun with them. The season went fast, which is always a sign that it’s a fun season. It seemed like we just started and here it is November 8th. The good thing is that we’re bringing an awful lot of kids back, so hopefully we’ll be able to get a chance to be right back here next year.”

Ashland 2,
Richmond 1 (OT)

Class D Girls Soccer State Championship, at Hampden Academy
Richmond—010—1
Ashland— 011—2
Goals — (A) Mackenzie Carter 2; (R)
Meranda Martin.
Shots — Ashland 14, Richmond 10.
Saves — (R) Kelsie Obi 10; (A) Laura
Sturgeon 6.
Corner kicks — Ashland 5, Richmond 0.
Final records — Ashland 18-0; Richmond 16-1.
Note — Ashland captures first state
championship in 25 years with victory over Richmond, which appeared in
its fifth consecutive State Class D title
game.