FRYEBURG — For the second year in a row, the Freeport field hockey team had to play a little longer than 60 minutes to see if it would be heading to the Class B state final.
Once again, it was worth the wait for the Falcons.
Sophie Bradford scored with 3:21 remaining in the second overtime, lifting the second-seeded Falcons to a 2-1 victory over No. 1 Yarmouth in the Class B South final Thursday afternoon at Fryeburg Academy.
Emily Groves also scored for Freeport (13-3-1), which will face Cony in the state final on Saturday in Lewiston.
Celia Zinman scored for the Clippers (14-2-1).
Last year, Freeport reached its first Class B state final by taking down York in penalty corners. This time, the season again came down to a sudden-death scenario again – just the way the Falcons like it.
“I guess the stressful moments bring out the best in us,” Bradford said.
Again, Freeport had the answer under pressure. Reed Proscia inserted the ball on a penalty corner – only the Falcons’ third of the game – and Lizalyn Boudreau sent it from the top of the circle to the right post. The ball made it to the goal mouth uninterrupted, and Bradford hammered it home to set off a celebration.
“It was crazy,” Bradford said. “My whole team did so great, they executed their corners so well and I was just there to pop it in. … I couldn’t even process it at the beginning. I just stood there and I was like ‘Oh wait, it’s in there!'”
Freeport’s reaction was a mix of joy and relief.
“I was like, ‘Can we do something a little bit faster so I’m not just dying on the sidelines of anxiety?'” Coach Marcia Wood said. “Those kids are hard. When you get to overtime, it’s not so much skill, it’s just the hustle. There’s nothing much I can say to them besides ‘Just push. Just keep pushing.'”
The Falcons scored just 3:30 into the game. Proscia sent a ball up to Emily Groves, who was all alone as she ran up toward the goal. The high-scoring forward had her first shot saved by Quincey Schnee but stuck with it and buried the rebound.
“I’ve had a lot of those chances this year and I haven’t been able to convert,” Groves said. “I just made sure I was going to be able to move the goalie, and be able to put it in.”
Freeport kept up the pressure in the first half, but Yarmouth gained the upper hand in the second half. With senior forward Sophie Smith leading the way, the Clippers began to throw waves of pressure at the Falcons, and they broke through on a corner 2:49 into the third quarter. Madison Wiles passed toward the net and Zinman was in position to score the tying goal.
“We’re definitely a second-half team,” said Smith, a senior captain. “I’m so proud of my team. For the past two years, we’ve been pretty half-and-half with our records. This year, we all put in the work. I’m so grateful that we got to go all the way here.”
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