AUBURN — After producing two comebacks Saturday afternoon, the St. Dom’s girls’ soccer team ran out of rallies.

The Saints battled back from a pair of one-goal deficits in their Western C semifinal with Waynflete, only to watch the Flyers pull away for a 5-2 win. It was the second straight year Waynflete has eliminated the Saints in the semifinals.

“We showed a lot of heart doing that,” St. Dom’s coach Alicia Pelletier said. “Unfortunately, we broke down one too many times and couldn’t come back from that last one.”

Leigh Fernandez scored back-to-back goals in the middle of the second half to break open a 2-2 tie. Then Ella Millard scored her second of the game to seal it.

“Credit to them, they came back every time until we put it away,” said Fernandez, a senior forward. “They didn’t give up and made it very interesting. It was a really good test for us going into the regional final.”

The Flyers controlled play early, but St. Dom’s quickness up front led to defensive mistakes and tying goals. The Saints got tallies from Faith Grady and Marley Byrne, but just couldn’t match the Flyers firepower.

“I thought we controlled some of the play but some of their counters, those goals, I thought it was going to go back and forth,” Waynflete coach Todd Dominski said. “We made a few adjustments to try to slow them down a little bit.”

It was consistent pressure in the box in the second half that helped produce a scoring barrage that the Saints couldn’t match. Saints’ keeper Kelly Pomerleau was superb in net with 15 saves as the Flyers put on 26 shots.

“I think we were able to hold the ball in the midfield and we were able to penetrate wide and get what we were looking for,” said Dominski, whose team will host Sacopee Valley in the regional final.

The fifth-seeded Flyers (12-2-2) got the first goal at 9:02. Cat Johnson had a shot from the left side that Pomerleau dove to save. Helen Gray-Bauer, who had just entered the game, was there to steer in the rebound.

The top-ranked Saints (13-2-1) were able to tie it in the final minute of the half. Grady got behind the defense and found space for an open shot that she put past keeper Julianna Harwood with 50 seconds to play.

Waynflete went back ahead when Arianna Giguere made a cross from the left side. Millard was in front to tip it in at 6:09 of the second half. St. Dom’s answered minutes later when a defender had the ball stolen by Byrne to the left of the net. She put it past a charging Harwood with 29:48 left in the game.

The Saints began to even out play for a bit, but the Flyers went ahead again following a corner by Marijke Rowse. The ball was loose in front. Fernandez finally got possession and had an open look. She fired it through a crowd with 23:34 left.

“Marijke had a great corner,” Fernandez said. “The goalie was out of position and I found an opening.”

Then with 18:25 left, Fernandez burst down the right side and fired a shot that found the opposite corner. Millard sealed it with 17:20 left. She scored from the right side off a Flyer free kick.

“I think we hung our head a little bit unfortunately after that second one,” Pelletier said. “The third one, it was just bad circumstances and then the fourth one was kind of the nail that did us in. We just couldn’t climb out of that hole.”

It was the fourth time in five years that the Saints have been eliminated by a Western Maine Conference team. St. Dom’s beat the Flyers in the regional final two years ago to but have lost to Waynflete two years in a row, including last year’s overtime loss in the semifinals.

“It was a very good year,” Pelletier said. “After losing so many seniors and being able to come back with such a young team and do as well as we did was nice. We’re going to miss two great seniors in Kelly and Marley. They’re huge holes to fill, but we have players to try to do it. We can only build off this experience and take it for what it is.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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