BIDDEFORD — Brooke Belz came through to end a scoreless stalemate and send the Winthrop field hockey team back to the state title game.
The senior scored the lone goal in the Ramblers’ 1-0 double-overtime victory over Lisbon in the the Class C South final at Waterhouse Field on Wednesday.
Belz’s game-winner put an end to a long and grueling battle that was a rematch of last year’s regional final.
“I was honestly happy the game was over,” Belz said. “I was so tired.”
The Ramblers also beat the Greyhounds, 8-1, in the 2021 regional final. During this year’s regular season, top-seeded Winthrop (14-2) swept second-seeded Lisbon, winning 4-0 on Sept. 2 and 4-1 on Sept. 28.
The Ramblers haven’t conceded a goal since that Sept. 28 game. Including Wednesday’s game, they have seven consecutive shutouts.
Winthrop will play Maine Central Institute, which defeated Dirigo 2-0 in the C North final, in the Class C state championship Saturday at Messalonskee High School.
The Ramblers are playing for their second straight Class C state championship. They have won five straight regional titles, dating back to 2018 (no postseason was held in the fall of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic).
“It feels so good, it’s my senior year — it’s our last ride (as seniors),” Winthrop goalie Madison Weymouth said. “I knew after this game — I knew I would be crying, either way, happy or sad tears. But I am glad it’s happy tears and we get to go against MCI this year.”
Winthrop coach Sharon Coulton said she expected Lisbon to be a tough matchup Wednesday.
“They are so much faster and a skilled team (than September),” Coulton said. “It just shows on turf.”
Lisbon coach Julie Petrie said she is proud of how well the Greyhounds played.
“They just executed our plan. They had heart, they had grit,” Petrie said. “They played their hearts out. They left it all out on the field — that’s all I can ask for.”
Belz’s goal came with 43.9 seconds remaining in the second overtime. She scored on a rebound after Isabella Folsom’s shot hit the post.
“It was a beautiful (shot) my friend Izzy had,” Belz said. “She had a reverse chip and I just (put home the rebound). It’s really (Izzy) who deserves all the credit. Lisbon is a great team; they gave us a run for our money.”
Petrie said Levesque (seven saves) played well and the goal was an unfortunate bounce.
“She was great; it’s disappointing a bad bounce (had) to end it like that,” Petrie said. “She kept us in it the whole game.”
Field hockey overtime sessions are played 7-on-7, instead of the 11-on-11 played in regulation. Belz earned one of Winthrop’s seven spots through her play throughout the contest.
“She was keeping her stick down, she was fast, and she was being tenacious,” Coulton said. “It’s the way Brooke always plays.”
The Ramblers had a few other scoring opportunities earlier in the second OT. Madeline Wagner’s chance to win the game went wide of the cage. Wagner then set up Bella Littler on a 2-on-1, but Littler wasn’t able to get off a shot attempt.
Winthrop also had chances early in the first overtime session, but shots by Folsom and Wagner went wide of the cage.
Haley Tuplin put two shots on goal for Lisbon in the first overtime, but Weymouth made saves on both.
“Honestly, it was a little nerve-racking,” Weymouth said of facing Tuplin, a finalist for the Miss Maine Field Hockey award. “Like I said, I kept my head in it and get my mind right and stop the shots.”
Both offenses were on the attack during regulation, but neither defense was willing to concede anything.
In the first quarter, Lisbon goalie Maria Levesque made two diving saves with about nine minutes remaining. The Ramblers defense cleared the ball out of danger on a Greyhounds scoring opportunity in final second of the period.
“Maria is an outstanding goalie. You get past that line of defense and you have her, which is (another) wall,” Coulton said. “I think we had some opportunities, but so did (Lisbon).”
Both teams struggled to advance the ball into the circle during the first 10 minutes of the second. Winthrop had its only penalty corner of the quarter with five minutes to go, but it didn’t result in a quality scoring chance.
Lisbon put pressure on the Ramblers with three penalty corners in the final two minutes of the quarter. The Greyhounds turned over the ball on the first two, and Winthrop quickly cleared the ball out of the circle on the third.
Weymouth (five saves) also stopped a Lisbon shot in the final two minutes.
The Greyhounds denied four straight Winthrop corners in the middle of the third quarter.
Winthrop thought it took a 1-0 lead as time expired in the third when Julie Letourneau shot the ball into the open cage off a corner, but the officials ruled it a no-goal.
Coulton’s message to her team after the overturned goal was simple.
“I said, ‘Hey, we are this close, keep plugging at it,'” Coulton said.
The Ramblers again racked up the corners in the middle of the fourth quarter, but each time came up empty. On one of those corners, Levesque stopped Lauryn Wood in the circle.
Lisbon played defense for most of the fourth but did make one push in the final two minutes of regulation. However, the Greyhounds’ only shot attempt of the period, which was from long-range, was stopped by Weymouth.
“We didn’t get the bounce that we wanted,” Petrie said. “Last year, we came to (the regional final), and it wasn’t a game. Our goal today was to make it a game to the very end.
“I am just very proud — that’s how championship field hockey should be.”
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