PORTLAND — After every win, Sacopee Valley High School coach Kevin Murphy went up to Olivia Ruhlin and asked his senior captain if he could celebrate.
Each time, Ruhlin responded, “Not yet.”
It was time to celebrate Saturday, and it was Ruhlin that made it all possible. Ruhlin netted the game-winning goal in the 67th minute on a strike from the top of the box as Sacopee Valley won the Class C state title, 1-0, over Fort Kent at Deering High School. The goal that won the Hawks their state title was Ruhlin’s first of her career.
“I’m one of these guys that has been a huge Olivia fan,” Murphy said. “She’s been a captain for us for two years. It’s storybook that she scored that. I remember telling her the first day she came to summer practice as a freshman, ‘Young lady, you’re going to play a lot for us over the next few years.’ Her evolution to what she could do shooting to that shot — night and day. It’s so cool to see that.”
The lone goal of the match came by way of Sacopee Valley’s seventh corner kick. Ruhlin hung back at the top of the box away from the action, but the ball came to her after a shot by McKenzie Murphy deflected off a Fort Kent defender. The ball came to Ruhlin and her strike found the left side of the net past a diving Alexa Pelletier.
“I’ve had dreams about this moment,” Ruhlin said. “I never actually thought it would come true, but this is happiness that I’ve never felt before.”
Despite scoring late, the Hawks weren’t in the clear. The Warriors made a push to tie it in the final minutes. They had a direct kick and a corner kick with two minutes to play, but Sacopee Valley’s defense held.
“Our girls had a mission tonight,” Murphy said. “No doubt about it. They saved their best game, by far from wire to wire, for the last game. We’ve had little letdowns in the playoffs during the games before and they’ve cost us a bit, but not tonight.”
Scoreless at halftime, Murphy said he had nothing written down as to what he would say for a halftime speech. Instead, he simply told his team to relax. The Hawks listened, recorded nine shots on goal in the final 40 minutes. Close games are nothing new to Sacopee Valley.
“We’re a pretty low-scoring team,” Ruhlin said. “If you look at some of our past games it’s been one-zip, two-one. Nothing really past three or four. We’re the kind of team that can stick it out. We’ve come back from two-goal deficits and we’re the kind of team that can lock it in, hold it out if we need to. When it comes down to it, whoever wants the goal, whoever wants the game more is going to win it.”
The Hawks entered the playoffs as the seventh seed in the West and had to play four matches— the last three being one-goal contests — just to get to the championship. Fort Kent, the No. 3 seed, had a bye in the first round.
“Playoffs is a whole new level,” Ruhlin said. “don’t care if you’re the first-seeded team when it comes to playoffs. That means nothing when it gets to this point of the season. Anyone has a chance. A seventh seed was just a number.”
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