LISBON — Chase Collier’s two quick goals gave the Lisbon Greyhounds some breathing room and lifted them to a 3-1 victory over the North Yarmouth Academy Panthers in a Class C South field hockey quarterfinal Wednesday.
“She has a knack for the ball,” Lisbon coach Julie Petrie said. “Very unselfish kid, but she wants to get the job done.”
A few minutes after the Panthers tied the game at 1-1, the ball stalled in front of their goal. Collier was the first one to get to it, and she smacked it into the goal to put Lisbon up, 2-1, with 23 minutes remaining.
Only one minute later, Collier struck again, and just like that, the Greyhounds had a comfortable 3-1 advantage.
“I just kind of saw the ball, and both the balls, I just kind of slammed it in,” Collier said. “Nothing special about it, I just knew that we really had to get a couple more goals in there to really secure our spot to go into the next round of the playoffs.”
Lisbon (9-5-0), the fourth seed, advances to the C South semifinals, where it will have its third shot at No. 1 Oak Hill (13-1-0) later this week.
Collier also had a hand in the Greyhounds’ first goal, setting up Peyton Gosselin with 10 minutes remaining in the first half.
That goal ended a two-game scoring drought. Lisbon was coming off consecutive shutouts to Oak Hill and Winthrop.
“It was definitely important for us to come out strong instead of flat,” Collier said. “Some games we come out flat and we play better in the second half, but we knew really had to play strong in the first half to get score first, and that was really important.”
Gosselin’s goal started a roller coaster ride that bridged the first and second halves.
Three minutes after the break, the Greyhounds let the ball linger in the middle, right in front of the goal, and North Yarmouth’s Amber Rose took advantage for the game-tying goal.
“I didn’t like the way we came out,” Petrie said. “That was our goal, to come out strong, and, I don’t know, I think it was kind of a wake-up call, for them to be like, ‘Uh oh, they’re not messing around.’ Because I think we got some shots early on them, but I think we were kind of content and going, ‘You know, we can score again.’
“But once they poked that in, I think it was actually good for us to, kind of (say), ‘All right, now we need to clamp down and mean serious business.’”
Within five minutes after Rose scored, though, Lisbon had a two-goal lead.
“I looked around and I saw some of the girls’ heads were down, so I knew that we really had to come back strong instead of feel defeated,” Collier said. “We just had to kind of bring it back.”
“You have no choice in the playoffs,” Petrie said. “We were not happy even it being even 1-0, so, you don’t have time to sit back and kind of let it come to you, you got to go get it.”
North Yarmouth (7-5-2) could have used the defense of Maya Davis, but she was busy playing goalie for the first time because starting goalkeeper has the flu.
“Her first time ever playing goalie,” Panthers coach Wendy Polstein said. “That’s not always the easiest thing to do in a playoff game, so she did a fabulous job.
“I could really notice the difference on the field, not having here there. So certainly I was like, ‘Oh, what it would have been like if she had been on the field.’ But they were fast and quick and really good, and it was a pleasure to play them.”
Davis made five saves. On the other end of the field, Mikayla Harnden also stopped five shots, including a late onslaught by the desperate Panthers.
Lisbon lost to Oak Hill 3-0 and 5-0 this season. That was the regular season, though, and in the past the Greyhounds have proven to be a different team in the postseason. Last year, they upset top-seeded Dirigo on their way to the regional final.
“Your season is on the line,” Petrie said. “We just talk about, like, there’s no room for error in the playoffs. We use last year as an example, we were the eight seed, people counted us out, playing No. 1. You just, you give it everything you’ve got, and you’ve got to expect that from every single team you play, because that’s what it’s going to be.
“It’s go big or go home; we always say that together.”
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