SANFORD — First Natalie Dubois’ overtime scrum goal won Tuesday’s Class A South quarterfinal for the Marshwood High girls’ soccer team.

Thirty seconds later the fifth-seeded Hawks (13-3) found out they had won the Good Draw Lottery when the announcer at Cobb Stadium informed the crowd that Marshwood would be “hosting Kennebunk” in Saturday’s regional semifinal.

“Kennebunk beat Windham,” Marshwood Coach Chelsea Watson heartily explained to her jubilant team.

Ninth-seeded Kennebunk upset top-seeded and two-time defending champion Windham, 2-0.

“The girls and I, we’re on Cloud Nine right now,” Watson said.

Fourth-seeded Sanford (10-3-2) twice tied the game on direct kicks from distance by Kristen O’Connell – the second coming about a minute after Marshwood took a 2-1 lead on Hannah Fife’s penalty kick.

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But with about four minutes to play in the first 15-minute overtime, Marshwood’s dangerous striker Marin Smith had the ball about 35 yards out when she went down and a foul was called.

Smith quickly chipped a ball into the box to Sanford goalie Kyla Bragg’s left. It appeared Bragg briefly had her hands on it before the ball came free.

“I saw it pop out and I just took the opportunity,” Dubois said.

Dubois had a clean look at the goal and kicked it in “with my laces” of her right foot.

“I tell them that it doesn’t (matter) if you hit it with your hip, your thigh, your toe, your head, as long as it gets in the back of the net,” Watson said. “When the ball is loose in the 18 like that, you’ve got to put it in somehow.”

After a brief discussion between the lead referee and his linesman, Dubois’ goal was credited. Sanford Coach Chris Coleman ran onto the field and let the referee know he felt the goal should not have counted. Coleman was issued a red card.

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“I was upset with the free kick that was given,” Coleman said. “I felt that was a good challenge, and then we’ve got to get organized and deal with the ball in the box, which we sort of half dealt with and then I did feel my goalkeeper was fouled. Decisions like that, which do affect the game, they hurt a little bit more because that is the end of our season.”

Marshwood put Sanford in danger almost immediately when Smith knocked in a loose ball in the third minute.

“We conceded an early goal, which wasn’t what we wanted, but in fairness to Marshwood they were the better team for the first 35 minutes,” Coleman said. “They pressed the living daylights out of us.”

Not much had gone Sanford’s way until Marshwood goalie Emily Robida misplayed O’Connell’s direct kick in the 36th minute, allowing it to bounce in front of her, then skip past.

In a second half with little flow, Fife’s penalty kick goal came with 12:36 left in regulation. Smith drew a foul when she took on two defenders.

About a minute later, it was Sanford benefiting from a Marshwood foul when O’Connell brilliantly deposited a 30-yard kick into the top left corner.


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