Freeport wins first state championship

LEWISTON—The 2023 Freeport Falcons now belong to the ages.

Thanks to a defensive effort that had to be seen to be believed.

Saturday morning/afternoon at Don Roux Field on the campus of Lewiston High School, the Falcons made their return to the Class B field hockey final and unlike a year ago, when inexperience and an unfortunate bounce did them in, this time, good fortune smiled upon them.

And completely frustrated the Cony Rams in the process.

After turning away three early Cony penalty corners (which would become a recurring theme), Freeport went on top to stay with 5:17 to go in the first period, when sophomore Emily Groves continued her trend of scoring goals in the biggest games, redirecting home a shot from sophomore Liza Flower.

Then, with 3:12 left in the first half, after the Rams asked for a timeout but didn’t receive it, play continued and the Falcons made it 2-0 when Groves sent the ball to the far post where junior Sophie Bradford, the hero of the regional final, finished.

Cony completely dominated the third quarter, taking eight corners and testing Freeport sophomore goalie Maddie Kryzak three times, but it couldn’t break through.

The Rams then got corner after corner opportunity in the final period, 10 times in all, but the Falcons’ defense rose to the occasion every time and kept them off the board, slamming the door on an exhilarating and history-making 2-0 victory.

The Falcons not only finished their fabulous campaign with a record of 14-3-1, they ended Cony’s impressive season at 15-2-1 and reached the pinnacle at last.

“I feel like we just put Freeport field hockey on the map and I’ve been waiting to do that for many, many years,” said Falcons coach Marcia Wood, who also coached Freeport to its first girls’ lacrosse championship back in June. “We wanted to play on the last day of the season and we did it. I’m so impressed with our grit and the girls’ perseverance.”

Lesson learned

Freeport made a surprise run to the Class B state game a year ago before losing to Lawrence, 1-0, and the Falcons came into the 2023 season as the Class B South favorite in the minds of most.

Freeport was up and down during the regular season (see sidebar for links to previous stories), opening with a one-goal home loss to Yarmouth, winning six straight, suffering through a three-game winless streak, then capturing its final four games to finish second in Class B South.

In the quarterfinals, the Falcons had no trouble with No. 7 Greely, prevailing, 7-0. They then blanked No. 3 Lake Region, 4-0, in the semifinals, giving Wood her 100th victory with the program. Thursday, in the regional final at Fryeburg Academy, Freeport needed double-overtime to survive top-seeded Yarmouth, 2-1, on Bradford’s goal.

Cony, meanwhile, won its first eight games, scoring 60 goals in the process, and while it lost to Belfast and tied Nokomis, it wound up 12-1-1, outscoring the opposition, 89-9.

As the second seed in Class B North, the Rams dispatched No. 7 Old Town (6-0) in the quarterfinals, eked out a 2-1 victory over third-seeded Nokomis in the semifinals, then handed top-ranked, undefeated Belfast its first setback of the year in Thursday’s regional final, 3-0.

The Falcons and Rams didn’t meet this year and had no playoff history.

Cony had played in nine Class A finals between 1980 and 1995, winning five of them.

Freeport, meanwhile, had appeared in three prior state games, losing the Class C Final in both 1987 (1-0 to Piscataquis) and 2000 (2-1 to Dexter) and last year’s Class B state game to Lawrence.

Saturday, on a comfortable 50 degree day, in front of a large crowd, Freeport made sure that the fourth time was the charm.

Cony controlled the play early and three minutes in, had successive corners which didn’t result in a shot.

Then, with 10:14 left, the Rams earned a third corner which appeared to be the charm, as junior Natalie Dube sent the ball into the net, but the goal was waved off as a dangerous shot.

That awakened the Falcons, who got across midfield for the first time, then with 9:10 remaining, earned their first corner, which didn’t generate a shot.

After sophomore Liza Flower had a rush broken up by Cony senior Maci Freeman, Freeport earned another corner and this time, it produced the first goal of the game.

The ball was inserted by junior Anna Maschino and came to Flower, who shot the ball and Groves was waiting to redirect it home to put the Falcons on top to stay.

“It was such a blur,” said Groves, about her 23rd goal of the season and seventh of the playoffs. “Liza sent it in and I just hit it in. I couldn’t have done it without Liza. I didn’t expect to just score like that. It’s really important to score early because it drives you to play hard the whole game.”

“I think that first goal was really important because we realized we could win,” said sophomore midfielder Lizalyn Boudreau, who once again was superb all over the field.

“We didn’t know who would score today,” Wood added. “Last year, we relied a lot on Chloe (White) getting the ball up to Em, but she’s doing so much more this year. Playing defense, getting the ball up the field. She’s upped her game and she has a strong supporting cast around her.

“Against Greely in our first playoff round, I told the girls to try to score early to give ourselves a little bit of a cushion so we’re not playing so frantic and they’ve executed that. I knew it wouldn’t be a one-goal game, so we had to keep pushing.”

Not only was Freeport in front, Groves’ goal marked the first time in four state games that the Falcons held a lead.

And they wouldn’t relinquish it.

The second period began with Freeport nearly doubling its lead, as sophomore Reed Proscia deflected a pass from Maschino just wide on a corner.

Junior Caroline Hendrickson then tried to pull the Rams even, but she was denied by Kryzak.

With 3:28 to go in the half, Flower raced up the field and crossed the ball to Groves, who redirected it just wide.

Cony coach Holly Daigle then yelled for a timeout, but it wasn’t granted and after a turnover, the Falcons struck, as Proscia got the ball to Groves, who aimed for the far corner, but before the ball could get there, Bradford banged it home to make it 2-0.

“My teammates did a great job getting the ball up the field,” Bradford said. “Emily sent it across and I tapped it in. It’s an amazing feeling.”

“I was just trying to get the ball around the goalie and I was hoping Sophie would be there to hit it in and she was,” Groves said.

“That second goal just boosted us more,” said Boudreau.

“I’ve been in that spot before where I can’t get a timeout,” Wood added. “It happens. We took advantage. Last year’s goal was off (Lawrence’s) foot, so this time, it went our way.”

After Groves was denied by Cony sophomore goalie Ashley Maxim, Daigle finally got her timeout, but it didn’t generate another shot and Freeport held a two-goal halftime advantage, thanks in part to a 6-5 edge in corners.

A stat that would be turned on its ear in the second half.

It didn’t take long for the Rams to tilt the field when the third quarter commenced and they would have eight corners total in the frame.

Boudreau broke up a couple early corners, then Dube had a shot saved by Kryzak. After Hendrickson missed just wide with a rocket, sophomore Gwen Dunham broke up a Cony rush, Boudreau blocked a Hendrickson shot off a corner, then Groves blocked a shot off another corner.

Cony even got to play out a corner as time expired, but couldn’t finish and suddenly, Freeport was 15 minutes from victory.

But those 15 minutes would be grueling and would seem interminable, as the Rams had chance after chance to get back in the contest.

Cony exceeded its third quarter total of eight corners with 10 in the final stanza, but as was the case in the previous period, not one found the cage.

First Boudreau cleared a corner opportunity.

Kryzak followed by saving a backhanded shot from Dube.

Sophomore Abby Cormier then got in on the fun, twice clearing the ball away off corners.

After Kryzak denied Freeman on a corner, Hendrickson missed just wide, then, with 3:15 to go, she had a backhanded shot off a corner tipped on frame, but Kryzak saved that one as well.

“Maddie did an amazing job,” Bradford said. “She’s outstanding. We couldn’t have done it without her. I can’t stress how amazing she was. We just focused on staying in the circle. It was hard to keep running back-and-forth, but we had to.”

“Our defense, we’re incredibly supportive of each other,” said Boudreau. “Every time there’s a corner called against us, we hype each other up. I just tried to stay focused. Our poor forwards, I’m sure were exhausted. It was a long second half.”

“Our defense played amazing today,” Groves said. “I can’t give them enough credit. They got the ball out every single time.”

“At halftime I said, ‘We’re playing defense,'” Wood added. “(Junior) Sydney Gelhar was a beast in the playoffs. She just cleared it. If Sydney wasn’t clearing out, Lizalyn cleared it out, or Abby Cormier cleared it out, or Gwen Dunham, our silent but deadly player, cleared it out. Then, (sophomore) Kam Lizotte ripped it down the field. Everyone did their job. It was just fabulous.”

Finally, with three minutes left, the Falcons were able to clear the ball across midfield and ultimately got a corner itself, but Proscia had a shot saved.

With time winding down, Cony’s last chance saw Boudreau break up a Freeman rush.

Then, at 12:21 p.m., the horn sounded and Freeport was able to celebrate its history-making 2-0 triumph.

“I just screamed and jumped and celebrated, it was awesome,” said Boudreau. “It’s super-exciting. I’m so incredibly proud of my teammates and all of our hard work. It was a really good game and I’m happy we could do it. We started off our practice yesterday just laying on our turf doing some team bonding. We came here today ready to play our game and not worrying about what they were going to do too much. Last year, we weren’t really expecting to go as far as we did. This year, we were more ready for this.”

“I’ve never experienced this amazing feeling and I can’t believe it,” Groves said. “We weren’t really expecting to go to states last year. This year, it wasn’t a surprise. We wanted to be here and we were able to connect and win. We know what it feels like to lose this game and we wanted to change that. We knew a couple of their top players, but we just came out and played our game. It was definitely exhausting, but we just had to push through to the end. We were ahead and we wanted it.”

“It didn’t really hit me until we were standing in line waiting to get our medals,” said Bradford. “It’s a great feeling. We wanted it so badly. Getting those goals at the beginning really helped us. Cony gave us great competition and it was a really good game. We had some tough games, but we just know how to come together as a team when it really counts and we did.”

“We just wanted the time to tick,” added Wood, who was visibly emotional following the game. “Once we cleared it, I thought finally that we were good. It’s my first title in field hockey. We did it in a tough league and the North is tough. I knew we had our work cut out. (Cony) had momentum, but we weren’t nervous. We said on the bus,’ There’s only six teams left and we’re one of them.'”

Kryzak dazzled by making eight critical saves.

“Maddie’s first year of field hockey was last year,” Wood said. “Now, she’s making saves on the big stage. She got ready to take over for Piper (Williams). She worked her tail off to get ready and was a rock star today.”

Cony finished with an 8-3 shot advantage, got one save from Maxim and finished with a whopping 23 corners (to Freeport’s nine), but couldn’t convert any of them on a day of frustration.

“It’s really tough to dominate possession and not be able to score,” said Daigle. “Not for lack of effort. We made adjustments for the second half. They played hard, they did a lot of things really well, but it was tough to not be able to take back that first half.”

Just getting started

Freeport graduates just two seniors, Lilia Collard and Ellie Foss. Everyone else returns and there promises to be some talented new additions as well.

It all adds up to another title contender in 2024 and now that the Falcons have broken through, this could become a regular occurrence.

“It would be really amazing to win it again,” Boudreau said. “To do it again with this same team would be incredible.”

“We hope to be here again next year,” said Groves. “We just need to work together like we did all season and if we connect on the field, we will be here again.”

“Obviously, we’re going to miss our seniors, they’re amazing, but we have some great freshmen coming in too,” said Bradford. “We just have to keep working hard.”

“I’m looking at these girls and they started with me when they were little,” added Wood. “I was waiting for them to get into high school. I’ve had them since they were peanuts. They’ve had me as a coach for many, many years.

“I’m hoping the future is bright. Wait until you see my freshmen coming in. It’s hard to get here, but we have the pieces in place and now I have something to compare it to and I can tell them, ‘You’ve done it. You know.'”

Press Herald staff writer Drew Bonifant contributed to this story.