SCARBOROUGH — In a game between perhaps the top two girls’ soccer teams in Class A South, perhaps the top player in the division made the difference Tuesday night.

Ciera Berthiaume scored with just under two minutes remaining in the first half – her 17th goal in 14 games – to carry Windham to a 1-0 victory against Scarborough and the top seed for the playoffs.

Berthiaume took a long pass from Holly Spencer more than 30 yards from the net, spun to the middle and unleashed a high, arching drive toward goal.

The ball came down in the back of the net.

“I just kind of let it go,” said Berthiaume. “I’m kind of known for that. I was hoping to get it near the net and just make anything happen.”

Windham, the two-time defending Class A champion, improved its record to 13-1 heading to the playoffs. Scarborough is 12-1-1.

“It was a mistake on our part, letting Ciera spin to the middle,” said Scarborough Coach Mike Farley. “She’s done that a million times. We needed to make sure she spun out wide to her left foot instead of into the middle to her right foot. It really was our only mistake; we gave up one shot and one goal.”

“Ciera has a huge foot,” said Eagles Coach Deb Lebel. “We knew we weren’t going to get a ton of shots and we knew this could be a 1-0 game, so we had to score like that. She really does have one of the strongest boots in the league, and there’s not many players who could have scored from that far out.”

Sadie Nelson helped the Eagles secure victory, turning away 11 shots and helping thwart six corner-kick attacks.

“She came up big when the pressure was on,” said Lebel. “She really kept us in this game. That many corners usually results in a goal so she definitely saved us.”

Farley insisted that the loss will do nothing to deter Scarborough’s confidence in the postseason.

“We would have loved to get the No. 1 seed but we knew this game was going to be a real test coming in,” said Farley.

“We feel pretty good though – that’s a very good offensive team, and to hold them to just one shot is big. We’re really confident in our ability to defend, and we just need to find a way to make sure we get the goals on nights like this.”

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