Eagles coach Ashley Pullen called her senior captain “sneaky.”
Sneaky, and good.
St. Pierre corralled a pass from Allyssa Turner and flipped it across her body and into the top right corner of the cage with 1:23 to play in overtime Saturday, lifting Messalonskee to a 7-6 victory over Massabesic in the Class A state title game at Fitzpatrick Stadium.
“She likes to play sneaky,” Pullen reiterated. “I saw her and Ally lock eyes, and I just knew it was going to happen. I could see Ally lining it up. Everything went in slow motion for me, and then it was over.”
“The ball was at the top, and it got sent down low really quickly,” St. Pierre said. “The goalie didn’t have time to adjust and I saw the opening right by her head and I put it there.”
The goal capped a remarkable comeback for the Eagles (15-1-0), who found themselves down 4-0 early in the first half, and perhaps on track to replicate last year’s disappointing setback to Marshwood in the state final.
“We kept working hard, we knew it was possible, we knew we could come back,” St. Pierre said. “We had to work together. It was one goal at a time, that’s how we had to do it.”
It wasn’t easy, and even through most of the second half, the Eagles’ chances continued to look slim.
The Mustangs (14-2), meanwhile, rode out to the 4-0 lead on a pair of goals from Maquila Dimastrantonio and one each from Delia Sylvain and Josie Ring.
Messalonskee started chipping away, getting a pair back before halftime.
The teams traded goal early in the second half, see-sawing to marks of 5-3 and 6-4 in favor of Massabesic.
After that sixth Mustangs goal, Pullen called a timeout.
“We had the ball, we were in transition, and I just told them to go out there and have fun,” Pullen said. “I said, ‘You know everything you need to know, you have the skills, there’s nothing I am going to tell you right now to change that. You have nine minutes and twenty-three seconds left to play in a state championship game, go out there and soak up every minute of it.'”
Lydia Dexter scored her second of the game with 8:55 to play to again pull her team within a pair. Turner closed the gap with 4:12 remaining, netting her second, and Dexter evened the score with 1:50 to play.
Massabesic had one good look in the closing seconds, and a shot went off the crossbar. The ball came back to the turf as time expired, setting the stage for St. Pierre’s overtime heroics.
“She is not going to get lost in her head,” Pullen said. “She is someone you can always turn to. She was sucking up the ground balls in the middle leading up to the winning chance, there was no way she was giving up on those.”
After the team finally got set in the offensive zone, the Eagles’ passing attack went to work.
“We were sending it around, and honestly, we were just looking for anyone who was open,” St. Pierre said. “We knew they were going to have high pressure, we knew they wanted the ball badly. It was a long pass, I saw the opening and I just threw it there.”
The title is the first for Messalonskee in two trips to the final. Massabesic has been to the Class A final each of the past four years, winning one championship in 2014.
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