While the truth may lie somewhere in the middle, one thing no one can dispute: The senior defender’s strike was a game-changer — and a game-winner.
Eells’ tally, and the Hornets’ swarming defense, stood up against a flurry of Spruce Mountain pressure late in the second half as Leavitt clawed its way into the Class B South regional final with a 1-0 semifinal win over the Phoenix on Saturday in the teams’ regional semifinal.
“It was supposed to go inside to the stroke (line) to Ashley Mathieu,” Eells said. “My job is to stay on the outside edge of the circle, just in case that ball comes through, so I can put it back in.”
Coach Wanda Ward-MacLean saw it differently.
“That was just a cross, it doesn’t matter who gets a stick on it,” Ward-MacLean said. Ashley almost deflected that away, but Chantel just nailed it. That was beautiful. That was a new play we’d put in. They hadn’t seen that one before.”
That strike with 7:57 to play in the opening half lifted the Leavitt bench, and the players on the field. The Hornets kept pressing, but Spruce Mountain’s defense stood tall.
“We have been a second half team most of the season, and they do play better in the second half,” Spruce Mountain co-coach Julia Parker said. “We talked about not letting them score before halftime, and they held them off there, too.”
The Phoenix (11-6-0) took it a step further: They didn’t allow another shot to reach keeper Grace Ryan all game long, setting the table for their offense to try and knot the game, or take the lead.
Spruce Mountain’s best opportunity to score came late in the contest. Over a three minute stretch with less than 10 to play in regulation, the Phoenix earned five consecutive penalty corners in the Leavitt circle, and fired four shots on cage during that sequence. Leavitt keeper Hailey DeMascio turned back two of them, and Eells and fellow defender Alana Hartford swiped another two off the line behind the goalie.
“Our defense, it fell together today,” Eells said. “We watched the news highlight of Spruce beating Yarmouth, and it was the exact same corner Spruce beat us on the last game we played them. So at practice (Friday) we made sure we had a dummy offense run a play like that and we keyed in on that.”
DeMascio finished with six saves on the afternoon in an anniversary game of sorts for the sophomore keeper.
“She got thrown in last year, in this game last year,” Ward-MacLean said. “She was a little nervous before the game, but we told her, ‘Hey, it’s just another game. You’ve played this team a couple of times now.’ She knew they were going to be aggressive. And she stayed steady.”
Ward-MacLean called a timeout with less than four minutes to play to give the Hornets a breather, and to reset their game plan.
Spruce Mountain pressured more, but never got close enough to DeMascio again to pose a real threat.
“We have nothing to hang our heads about with these girls,” Parker said. “We’ve been fortunate the past several years to have great athletes and great teams and they always work hard.”
Leavitt (11-5) advances to the regional final for the first time since 2012, when the Hornets won a state title. They will face York, a 2-1 winner over Kennebunk in the other Class B South semifinal Saturday. York (16-0) won that game on the continuation of a penalty corner after time expired in regulation.
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