OAKLAND — Now that she’s a senior, Madi Doody wants to be someone the Eagles learn to count on. She took a giant step in that direction Wednesday night.
Doody’s second goal of the night came with 2:24 remaining in the second overtime session, capping a furious late comeback and handing Messalonskee a dramatic 8-7 win over Maranacook/Winthrop in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference girls lacrosse game at a soggy Veterans field.
Mesalonskee’s fourth straight win upped its record to 5-2 at the midway point of the season.
“I’ve kind of started to not depend on others, but try to be the one that other people can depend on,” said Doody, who took a feed from Abigail Klinge at the right side of the cage before firing home for the game-winner. “We’ve been coming out really hot in the second half, and we need to start trying to carry that over into the first halves, too.”
The second half of regulation was marked by furious rallies from both squads.
Down by a goal at halftime, the Eagles sandwiched Doody and Klinge goals around a strike from Maranacook/Winthrop’s Hadley Farwell to tie the game at 4-4 early on.
The visitors answered with three goals in a span of 6:23 midway through the second half to take a 7-4 lead, but the Eagles fought back with three more of their own — including a pair from Julia Wade late in regulation to even the score and send the proceedings off to extra time.
“I think (the second half) is when we wake up,” Messalonskee coach Crystal Leavitt said of her team’s propensity for slow starts. “There’s some nerves in the games, and in the second half we start to cool down and focus on the things that we need to work on. It’s not ideal for me, but they like to keep me on my toes.”
Despite outstanding goaltending at both ends of the field — Messalonskee’s Shea Cassani made 10 saves, Maranacook/Winthrop counterpart Stella Lauter stopped eight — Eagle senior Klinge came a crossbar away from walking off a win at the buzzer.
On the other side of the ledger, it was another victory of the “moral” variety for Maranacook/Winthrop (0-3), which lost in triple-overtime at Morse last time out.
Messalonskee’s Alivia Johnston (10) battles for the ball with Maranacook’s Eliza Pattershall (15) in the first quarter during a girls lacrosse game Wednesday in Oakland. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
“I’m big on moral victories,” said Maranacook/Winthrop coach Sarah Caban, whose team has yet to practice outside on a fully lined field. “I think we are heading in the right direction. What we’re seeing, and the intensity we’re getting out of these kids, is just unbelievable.
“They’re gaining on their skills and they’re gaining on how to be a team.”
The first half was marked by a blistering start from the visitors.
Maranacook/Winthrop scored three times in the opening 6:36, with goals from Ashley Deschamp, Eliza Pattershall and Xanthe Sawlivich — including a pair of assists from Lily Caban — to race out to a 3-1 lead.
The opening goal from Deschamp came at the back end of a two-minute man-down situation.
Messalonskee struck back with strikes from Klinge and Emma-Jane Parsons to send the game into halftime with the home side trailing 3-2.
The first half was marked by the stellar effort of Lauter, who made saves on three Messalonskee free-position shots in a span of 5:30 midway through the period, part of her five first-half saves, to preserve the lead at least into the break.
“That’s the best performance that I’ve ever seen,” Caban said of her goalie. “She was on fire today.”
“It took us a little while to find our groove and get confident putting the ball in the back of the net,” Leavitt said. “To have a game like that, to come down and win in overtime, that’s a good feeling to have. It’s good momentum, it’s good drive for us to continue the second half of our season.”
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