FREEPORT

The Poland High School field hockey team had just two shots on goal in the game.

It was the second one that counted the most, with the Knights coming away with an overtime 1-0 victory over Freeport on Thursday.

The Western Maine Conference matchup between the Knights and the Falcons went down to the wire, with Poland’s Carly King putting in the winner just over a minute into the extra 7-on-7 frame.

“We knew if we could get it into overtime that we’re a pretty good overtime team,” Poland coach Amy Hediger said. “We haven’t had any overtime games this year but last year we played a lot of 7-on-7. We knew if we could open up the field a little bit more we’d be all set.”

Poland started off the game strong, having possession for much of the first 15 minutes, but a timeout late by Freeport head coach Marcia Wood helped settle the Falcons and they really answered by controlling the remainder of the first half. Although Poland held the ball a bit longer, Freeport was the team with more quality scoring opportunities. The Falcons had one shot just skim the side of the cage late in the half. Their four penalty corners were stopped due to the solid play of Knight defenders Higera Nawass, Hwida Nawass and Morgan Brousseau.

The second half was all Freeport, with 13 penalty corners and 10 shots on goal, none of which slipped by Poland’s Ashley Cloutier, who had 11 saves between the pipes.

“Everyone was doing what they were supposed to do,” Cloutier said. “I felt like I had the whole entire team supporting me with every move that they made.”

The Falcons held an 11-2 advantage in shots and a 17-1 edge in penalty corners in the game.

“We had that momentum in the second half, we just really couldn’t capitalize on it and finish it,” Wood said.

Over a near eight-minute stretch of the second half, Freeport had nine of those penalty corners that were either pushed aside by Cloutier or shot wide.

“When you have 13 corners you should score on one of them,” Wood said. “You have an advantage where you’re playing seven against four, you’re up three players so you should really have a solid shot on goal. Some of them we got a good shot off but some of them we completely whiffed and those are missed opportunities.”

Bailey Coffin had one of those solid shots for Freeport, but Cloutier kicked it away with six minutes remaining in regulation. After a scrum in front of the net, Cloutier made her final save of the day, pushing the shot aside with just over two minutes left.

“She’s outstanding,” Hediger said. “She’s worked really hard throughout the summer and preseason and every practice. She comes to play, she wants to play, and there were a couple times where she took on three or four players and just came out and stopped them. She’s fearless and it’s great to see a sophomore with that amount of skill and excitement.”

The Falcons had their final penalty corner at two minutes but an attempted pass went out of bounds, sending the game into overtime.

It looked as though Freeport might start the extra eight minutes where they had left off, but once Poland took possession, Higera Nawass passed it through to Alexis Morey, who then hit King for the winning goal into the upper left side of the net.

“We really like playing 7- versus-7,” King said. “I knew we just needed shots on goal.”

With the win the Knights improved to 1-5, while the Falcons fell to 2-4.

“It feels awesome,” King said of the team earning their first win. “We’ve been waiting for it and keeping our heads up, believing and staying united and hopefully we see more of these.”

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