With five minutes remaining in the game, Fryeburg shot the ball towards the goal and it hit some body parts and found its way into the net to break a 1-1 tie. Fryeburg would hold onto for a 2-1 victory and move on to the regional quarterfinals, where it will face the York Wildcats.
The officials ruled it an own goal with Madison McIntyre last touching it for Fryeburg Academy.
“I think we were a bit unlucky to score on our previous chances,” Fryeburg coach Chris Gaskin said. “We will take the own goal and move forward.”
Anna Dodge was outstanding in Oak Hill’s goal, making 16 saves in the game.
“It’s one of those things where all year long, we depended on our defense and goalie,” Oak Hill coach Jeremy Young said. “It’s always a tough way to lose when you lose by one goal. It’s worth noting this year, the four games we lost now, were all by one goal. The margin of error certainly has fallen. When you live by a goal, that’s soccer.”
Earlier in the second half, Oak Hill had their chances. Rylea-Mae Swan had the ball in the box, but her shot leaked to the right and hit the right post five minutes into the second half. Eight minutes later, Halee Lair, who opened the scoring, beat the defenders and had a good look at the net. She stuttered for a second, and a Fryeburg defender caught up at the last second to block the shot.
Oak Hill (9-4-2) had five corner kicks in the game, four of them coming in the second half. Fryeburg’s only corner kick came in the second half.
Fryeburg (7-8-0) also had their chances before scoring the go-ahead goal. Dodge made a key diving save with 10 minutes remaining in the game. A minute later, Sophie Kummer had a clear look at the net, but booted the ball over the crossbar.
Young thought the lack of stoppages in the second half led to more scoring chances for both teams.
“I think the ball stayed in-bounds in the second half, which allowed play to be longer,” Young said. “In the first half, the play was out of bounds a lot of times. It lended to longer rallies, in the sense of tennis terms. The ball was moving around a little bit more without stoppage.”
In the first half, Fryeburg controlled the play early on as they had 12 shots on goal. It was Oak Hill who got on the board first, though, when Swan found Lair in the box for a goal with eight minutes remaining in the half.
Fryeburg responded three minutes later when Sophie Trepohl was able to get a shot past Dodge.
“It was our mistake that led to their goal,” Gaskin said. “The team came together to correct it shortly there after to even things up. I am very happy with that.”
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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