Oak Hill field hockey won its first regional championship in grand style, avenging a double-overtime loss to Lisbon in last year’s Class C South title game with a 3-0 victory at Fitzpatrick Stadium that was a breeze by comparison.
“I’m going to remember this forever,” junior Erika Hannigan, one of three different goal-scorers for Oak Hill, said.
Hannigan scored with 3:52 remaining in the first half, and No. 3 Oak Hill (12-5) dominated thereafter.
Lexi Fuller and Hayden Spencer added second-half goals. Fuller’s older sister, Abby, made five saves to earn the shutout for the Raiders, who will face Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield for the state title Saturday in Orono.
“Our defense is our strong suit this year,” Abby Fuller said. “We don’t have one person who is running the show. Everyone gets in on the action, like today we had three different scorers.”
No. 8 Lisbon (7-10) saw its four-game winning streak and its amazing postseason run screech to a halt. The Greyhounds beat Winthrop and Oak Hill at the end of the regular season to secure the final playoff berth, then ousted No. 1 Dirigo and No. 5 NYA to reach their fourth consecutive regional title game.
Mikaylia Harnden made eight saves for Lisbon.
“They played awesome. We did not play well today. I don’t know what it was. I don’t know if it was shellshock or if our inexperience showed today. We just did not show up to play,” Lisbon coach Julie Petrie said. “We kind of had that deer-in-the-headlights look. It was frustrating. I told them to leave the field without regrets today, but I don’t know about that.”
Hannigan’s goal was the only degree of separation in a half that saw both teams tally four shots on goal and five penalty corners.
Her tip-in moments earlier was whistled dead due to a teammate’s high stick moments before the ball hit the back of the cage. Hannigan took full advantage of the repeat opportunity, winning a one-on-one battle to the left side of the circle and firing a low laser.
“We were so motivated. We knew we needed to come out strong,” Hannigan said. “We thought we were going to come out so much stronger than we did, but they’re a really good team. They kept pressure on us the whole game.”
Lisbon figured to make another surge out of the halftime talk, but instead it was Oak Hill which hit the accelerator. The Raiders allowed only one shot on goal after the break.
Morgan Fenderson, Shelby Cyr and Kate Philbrick fought valiantly to snuff out the Raiders’ many opportunities. Eleven of Oak Hill’s 16 corners were struck in the second half.
“Getting the first goal is always the hardest. These are kids just trying to get over their jitters and their worries out there on the field. Once they got over that, they basically controlled the game,” Oak Hill coach Betsy Gilbert said. “They had 30 more minutes of hardcore field hockey to play. They’ve had their sights set on this day for a long time. They weren’t going to let anything happen to not get it.”
Lexi Fuller finally gave the Raiders some breathing room on one of those set plays with 12:38 remaining.
Kylee Veilleux kept the ball alive in the circle, and Zoe Buteau found Fuller behind Harnden.
“Once they got the second goal I got a little nervous,” Petrie said. “We do drills where we can get them in (that quickly). But they had the momentum, and I think the last few minutes it hit home and we definitely ran out of gas if we had any left at that point.”
Mercedes Pease and Lindsey Wright stepped up to silence Lisbon’s lone corner of the half. The Greyhounds couldn’t connect on a couple of promising breakaways by Chase Collier thanks to the tireless work of Brooke Surette.
“We were really solid. We knew if one of us was up that the other would be back,” Abby Fuller said. “We talked the entire time, which was huge. We noticed those little things like the people on post. We were there the whole, entire game, and we didn’t stop.”
Spencer finished off a pretty pass from Veilleux with 4:55 left to seal the championship.
Lisbon won the 2014 final nine seconds before the game would have gone to penalty corners to settle the issue. Both teams were hard-hit by graduation.
“That was last year. We don’t look in the mirror. We just look out of our windshield all the time,” Gilbert said. “They knew they wanted to get back here. They wanted that chance to be able to prove themselves as the team they are.”
“We got here. No one expected us to be here,” Petrie said. “(It’s tough) to lose, but I’m happy we got here and kind of made a name for ourselves late.”
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