The Edward Little senior found herself with possession of the ball and little time and space to do anything with it. After a moment of hesitation, she did what any goal-scorer will do: She fired a shot.

“I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do,” Paione said. “I don’t think (the goalie) was expecting me to shoot it.  I didn’t know what to do. So I just kicked it and it went into the corner of the net.”

Paione’s chip lofted into the top of the net with 11:02 left in the first overtime Wednesday to lift the Red Eddies to a 3-2 comeback win over Mt. Ararat.

EL rallied twice from one-goal deficits to win its first regional title since the Red Eddies won the Western A crown in 2001. EL advances to Saturday’s state game, scheduled for 5:30 at Hampden Academy. Poor field conditions could force a change in venue.

“Coach tells us all the time that he believes that we can do it,” senior keeper Molly Murray said. “He kept telling us all year that we had the second-best record ever at EL. They lost in the state championship. He knew. All season, he knew that we were going to have a great season. We just finished it so strongly. I just can’t believe it. It’s amazing.”

EL was down 2-1 late in regulation after Mt. Ararat’s Torri Pelletier scored the second of her two goals with 27:11 to play. EL tried to pick up its game down the stretch to produce the equalizer. When Francesca-Beth Haines broke past the defense with 4:54 left, she was tripped in the penalty area by defender Lauren Labbay. A penalty kick was awarded. Senior Hannah Smith, who had missed a PK Saturday in a win over Brunswick, drilled it to the lower left to tie it.

“Time was ticking down,” Murray said. “I was getting nervous. I just had a feeling that something was going to happen, and that we’d be able to do it. We got a penalty kick. We always trust Hannah to finish them. We practice those so much. So thankfully, she scored that.”

It was tough for the Eagles to regroup after that. EL had the momentum and carried that into overtime.

“We fought through adversity,” EL coach Craig Latuscha said. “We’re a second half team. We’ve been like that all year. We dug deep. Our seniors kind of took the rest of the game on their backs. Smith is a senior. Paione is a senior.”

Early in the first overtime, a defensive clear hit EL’s Piper Norcross in the face. The ball deflected off her to Paione, who had defenders between her and the goal with no space to maneuver. She hesitated for a moment, expecting a whistle. When she didn’t hear one, she tried to secure her footing on the slippery field and got the shot off.

“I didn’t really see it,” Paione said. “I just saw the net shake. Everyone starts screaming, and then I started screaming. It was a great feeling.”

EL had gotten off to a slow start. Defensive mistakes allowed Mt. Ararat to get some early opportunities. One of those chances came when a ball deflected off a defender and allowed Pelletier to break in for an open shot and 1-0 lead with 23:35 left in the half.

“They were very nervous,” Latuscha said. “With a crowd like this and to be surrounded by a crowd like that, who wouldn’t be nervous. If they weren’t nervous, I’d be kind of skeptical.”

EL got the tying goal with 18:45 left in the half. Following a free kick, Mariah Vaillancourt had a shot from the right side. It was stopped in front with Piper Norcross and Haines in front for the loose ball. Haines put it in at the right post.

Early in the second half, Mt. Ararat created all kinds of chances but couldn’t add to the lead.

“We weren’t exactly at the top of our game today,” Mt. Ararat coach Sam Chard said. “We were a little bit behind the ball. The field was a little slippery. Those things happen. They obviously wanted it. They came out hard.”

Ronni Pelletier had a shot saved by a diving Molly Murray. Then Torri Pelletier had a shot saved. EL defender Sarah Hammond cleared a ball away from an open net and Ronni Pelletier took a Christine Levesque pass and tipped it wide.

“If I make a big save, our team feeds off that,” Murray said. “It’s just energy. When somebody does well, it’s something we all feed off.”

The Eagles took the 2-1 lead with 27:11 left when Torri Pelletier got behind the defense and buried a breakaway.

EL had to rally again but started to build some momentum down the stretch. Emily Jacques had a chance off a free kick by Calli Murray. Then Piper Norcross had a header go wide off a Hammond free kick.

“We were working hard, playing confident and believing in ourselves,” Paione said. “We never gave up. We have to work extremely hard against team like this, but it makes us better.”

EL had tied Mt. Ararat 2-2 in the regular season. The Red Eddies lone state championship game appearance in 2001 was a loss to the Eagles.

“This was one of our goals at the start of the season,” Latuscha said. “Mt. Ararat was a team on our radar that we wanted to beat. We didn’t beat them in the regular season. To put them away right now in the playoffs is really sweet.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link