AUBURN — Lewiston senior forward Lexi Freeman was on the hunt.
In the second overtime Tuesday against Edward Little, Freeman was stopped by Red Eddies’ goalie Kasey Smith (six saves) in the crease, but Freeman created a turnover and scored on her second chance to give Lewiston a 2-1 field hockey victory.
“In the circle, I just saw the ball, and I just wanted it; I wanted the goal so bad,” Freeman said. “I kept going after it, and I just wanted to get another shot on.”
The goal capped off a back-and-forth field hockey game at Sherwood Heights Elementary School on Edward Little’s senior day.
“What a hell of a game for these seniors,” Red Eddies coach Kim Jolar said. “There are 18 seniors between the two teams, and this is the last time (Lewiston) is going to play Edward Little (in the regular season), and this is the last time we will play (Lewiston). What a way to end for both teams.”
The victory is the Blue Devils’ first of the season on natural grass.
“It felt really good considering it was against EL, our rival,” Freeman said. “It was just that much better having our first win on grass and it being against this team.”
Lewiston coach Jenessa Talarico said the speed between the two surfaces has caused issues for the Blue Devils this season. Lewiston can use their stickhandling skills more at home on the artificial turf, and the ball can roll farther down the field. Natural turf, meanwhile, plays slower.
“We do struggle (while) playing on the grass,” Talarico said. “It’s nice to finally get (a win) on the grass.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Lewiston (7-5-1) started to have some offensive chances in the second.
Midway through the second quarter the Blue Devils took three corners in three minutes, but Edward Little cleared the ball out of the circle each time.
Lewiston finally broke through late in the second quarter when Katie Laslie scored to put the Blue Devils up 1-0.
“She’s a super positive player,” Talarico said. “She’s a hard worker, and not every game does she play a ton (of minutes), but when she goes in, she gives 100 percent. She’s one of our best tippers on the team. That’s what I tell her to go in to do, and she did an amazing job at it.”
Ahna Dostie assisted on Laslie’s goal.
The 1-0 lead held up the rest of the second quarter, all of the third quarter and most of the fourth.
The Red Eddies started the fourth with a couple of penalty corners and turned the game’s tempo around. They began to dictate the play and flipped the field offensively.
The persistence paid off with less than three minutes to play when, off another penalty corner, Leah Thibodeau scored to tie the game at 1-1.
“That corner where Leah scored, it was just that quick momentum that we obviously needed to push forward,” Joler said.
The Red Eddies (1-12) created opportunities in the first overtime by pushing the ball into the offensive side of the field. However, Lewiston goalie Kim McLaughlin made one of her three saves to keep the game tied at 1-1.
Joler was pleased with Edward Little’s play in both overtimes.
“Those two overtimes, they played their best game right there,” Joler said. “Everybody was making the right moves, and they were cutting to (get) open; there were passes; it was beautiful to watch.”
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