BIDDEFORD — Raegan Cowan has been a scoring machine all fall for the Madison girls soccer team.
It seemed appropriate that Cowan put together another dominant performance to lead her team to the eight-person South title Tuesday night at Waterhouse Field.
Cowan scored four goals and added an assist to lead the No. 1 Bulldogs to a 5-2 win over the No. 2 Lakers. Madison (15-2-0) moves on the state final on Saturday at Fuller Field in Augusta. It’s the first regional title for the program since it won the Class C South title in 2017.
Ella Haynie also scored for the Bulldogs.
“It feels amazing (to win regionals),” said Cowan, a junior who has 56 goals this season. “There’s a lot of pressure (to score goals), but it’s really nice to finally get them in and celebrate with my teammates.”
Bree Quimby and Nichole Lemay scored for the Lakers, which finished 12-4-0.
Madison put the offensive pressure on Rangeley throughout as it built a 3-0 lead. The lead shrunk to 3-2 by halftime, but the Bulldogs never wavered. Cowan cooly put the game away with two second-half goals.
“(The game) was a lot faster paced (on the turf), and we knew we had to win the 50-50 balls,” Cowan said. “I thought we did really well, and we really capitalized on the (scoring) opportunities.”
Madison’s Raegan Cowan celebrates after her goal against Rangeley in the South regional eight person soccer championship Tuesday at Waterhouse Field in Biddeford. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
Madison jumped out to a 3-0 lead early. Cowan scored her first goal on a one-on-one situation just five minutes into the match. Ten minutes later, Cowan dished a pass to an open Haynie, who promptly blasted a shot into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead. Five minutes later, Cowan won another one-on-one battle, before she buried a shot into the far-right corner of the net to make it a 3-0 game.
But Rangeley continued to fight. The Lakers scored their first goal with less than seven minutes left in the half, when Quimby converted a free kick from 15 yards out to make it a 3-1 game. Three minutes after Quimby’s goal, teammate Nichole Lemay sent a high shot over Madison goalkeeper Allison Tuscan to cut the score to 3-2.
Cowan lengthened the lead for Madison in the first thirty seconds of the second half, racing out on a breakaway and drilling a shot past Rangeley goalkeeper Angelica Chavaree-Woodward for her third goal. Cowan put the game away with her fourth goal 15 minutes later, deking out Chavaree-Woodward for the final 5-2 score.
“We worked all year for this, it’s the best feeling,” Madison head coach Kayla Carrier said. “We practiced on turf on Saturday, and the girls learned really fast that you have to get every ball in the air, any ball that bounces, it’s going over your head. I think we did a better job than we have all season with that. (The turf) definitely played fast.”
Madison outshot Rangeley 9-5. Chavaree-Woodward had three saves for the Lakers.
“I’m proud of the way (the team) played all season,” Rangeley head coach Jeff Hawksley said. “What they did tonight was the way they played all year. Frankly, Madison is a better club. They’ve got more depth. They’ve got eight out there, the same as we do, but they’re a little stronger with the full eight. And they do have an exceptional striker (in Cowan). She’s very fast and very smart.”
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