FALMOUTH — Liberty Ladd was not trying to score herself. But the Falmouth High senior midfielder had a plan and purpose when she drove the ball into the half-circle scoring area.

“The thought is get it in there. Hit it in there and hopefully someone will tip it in, and if not, hit a foot and we’ll get a (penalty) corner,” Ladd said. “Any opportunity we have to get the ball into the circle is good, and we’ve got great forwards who know what to do to get it in the back of the net.”

This time, Ladd didn’t need help. The ball deflected off a defender and into the goal, setting No. 4 Falmouth on its way to a 2-1 win against No. 5 Gorham in a Class A South field hockey quarterfinal Wednesday.

Ladd’s goal broke a 0-0 tie with 23:19 remaining. Just over seven minutes later, she set up Keller Gardner for a goal off a penalty corner.

After taking the initial pass on the corner play, Ladd purposely paused an extra moment, waiting for a Gorham defender to get close and thus opening more space. Then she flicked a smooth pass to Gardner, who swept a firm, well-placed shot past Gorham keeper Lydia McCrillis (six saves) for a 2-0 lead.

“We call corners and we have some set corners, but they also know to improvise off of those and read what the defense is giving them,” said Falmouth Coach Robin Haley.

Falmouth (10-3-2) advances to a semifinal at 3:30 p.m. Saturday against No. 1 Biddeford (14-0-1) at Waterhouse Field. Falmouth and Biddeford tied 2-2 on Sept. 25.

Gorham, which beat Falmouth 1-0 in the regular season, finished 11-4-1.

“We know Biddeford is going to be tough. The way they score goals is unlike any other team in our league,” Haley said. “They’re able to do some aerial shots, some chips inside the circle, which creates problems defensively. But I believe in my team, that we can challenge them and give them a good game.”

Falmouth will try to duplicate the possession and field-position advantage it had against Gorham in the second half.

After a very even and scoreless first half, Falmouth’s experienced and athletic midfield of Ladd, Emma Cohen, Sara Wentworth and Sammy Means took control, getting the first touch on the majority of contested balls and recovering quickly to force turnovers when Gorham did have possession.

“I just think we wanted it more,” Cohen said of her team’s performance in the second half.

Gorham scored with 11:11 left when sophomore Molly Murray redirected a transition entry pass from Faith Dillon. It was Gorham’s only shot in the second half.

“The scoring opportunities, it just didn’t work out as well in the last 10 minutes, but I’m really proud of my team because they did not give up,” said Gorham Coach Becky Manson.

Steve Craig can be reached at 791-6413 or:

scraig@pressherald.com

Twitter: SteveCCraig