A four-goal lead in a state championship lacrosse game seems fairly comfortable.

Not to the Massabesic girls, though.

A year ago, the Mustangs saw such a lead evaporate and lost in overtime to Messalonskee.

On Saturday afternoon, the teams met again, and Massabesic kept its foot firmly on the gas pedal, pouring in five unanswered goals in the final 12 minutes to win the Class A state championship 13-4 at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Massabesic Coach Brooks Bowen said. “You don’t ever really feel comfortable. When the momentum shifts in this game, it can be ugly. It’s really hard to get it back.”

The victory capped a perfect season for Massabesic (16-0). Messalonskee finishes 14-2.

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A little over 14 minutes remained when Lauren Pickett of Messalonskee scored to cut the Eagles’ deficit to 8-4. Massabesic responded with three goals in a span of 85 seconds. Sophomore Skylar Renaud put in her own rebound. Madi Drain, walking with the ball 20 yards away from the net in an apparent stall, noticed a seam in the defense and raced in for another goal. Drain won the ensuing draw, attacked again with a spin move and put a left-handed shot into net for an 11-4 lead.

“I think we had a little fire in us that told us we can’t win by a few goals, that we need to keep going,” said Drain, who finished with three goals. “We waited, saw the opening and just went for it.”

Drain also helped pull the plug on Messalonskee comeback thoughts by winning eight of 11 draws in the second half.

Late in the first half, with Massabesic ahead 5-3, Morgan Pike had to sit out with a yellow card, but the Eagles couldn’t capitalize. Instead, Taylor Manning cut hard to the middle and scored a short-handed goal to make it 6-3 at intermission. Less than two minutes into the second half, she repeated the short-handed trick with a shot that caromed in off Messalonskee goalie Gaby Languet for a 7-3 lead.

“We were really affected by last year,” said Manning, who finished with three goals. “We were devastated by it. So we came out and really put our hearts into it.”

Massabesic took its first lead 24 seconds after the opening draw – won by Logan Champlin – when Renaud converted from free position. Four minutes later, Pike got the first of her four goals.

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Messalonskee tied it at 2 and trailed only 4-3 thanks to three goals by Ally Turner, but a transition goal by Pike with just under four minutes left in the half gave the Mustangs a two-goal cushion they retained for the rest of the game.

“We didn’t want to get in the same situation we had last year,” said Massabesic junior goalie Lydia Wasina, who finished with five saves, the same as Languet. “We wanted to keep pushing all the way to the end.”

Several members of the Massabesic team that lost 7-6 in overtime last spring were also on the field hockey team that lost 2-1 to Skowhegan in the Class A final in the fall.

“It was back to back for us,” Pike said. “A lot of us play field hockey here, so it was nice to finally get it done.”

Crystal Leavitt, Messalonskee’s first-year coach, was an assistant on last year’s championship squad. She knew Massabesic was a team on a mission.

“We knew we weren’t going to see anything less than 100 percent from that team (Saturday),” she said. “You can tell they’re one family out there. I think that connection really helped them.”

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The Mustangs printed Unfinished Business on shirts and sweatshirts this year. Bowen repeatedly harped on the importance of “finishing everything we start,” he said. “That included offseason work, practices, finishing. We talked about finishing a lot over the course of the year. I probably talked about it so much they got sick of listening to me.”

He paused and glanced over at Wasina, clutching the championship plaque.

“Now,” he said, “we can finish with that talk.”

Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or:

Gjordan@pressherald.com

Twitter: GlennJordanPPH


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