MONMOUTH — It seemed just a matter of time before Sacopee Valley would overtake Monmouth in its Western Maine Class C girls soccer quarterfinal Wednesday.
The No. 7 Hawks dominated the second-seeded Mustangs throughout the second half and finally broke through with a pair of goals in the final seven minutes to pull out a 2-1 victory.
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Junior Abby Hughes tied the game with 7 minutes, 5 seconds to go after taking a pass from McKenzie Murphy and chipping it in an open night. Hughes was credited by officials with the game-winner with 1:05 left to play but said later it wasn’t her goal.
“I think it ended up hitting off Brittany Ryan or Courtney Ryan,” Hughes said. “They were both there. It was more of a team goal.”
The Hawks (11-2-3) advance to the semifinals against either Waynflete or Mountain Valley while Monmouth finished its season 12-2-1. Sacopee returned its entire lineup from a year ago when it lost 1-0 to Waynflete in the Western Maine final.
Nerves were a factor in the first half when the Hawks fell behind 1-0 after Monmouth freshman Emily Grandahl scored eight minutes into the game on a direct kick from 20 yards out. The Hawks held a territorial advantage but managed just four shots on goal to Monmouth’s three.
“I just suggested to the girls to relax,” Sacopee coach Kevin Murphy said. “We’ve been behind a couple of times this year, and I said ‘girls I think you got uptight in the other games; relax, it will come to you,’ and it did.”
The Mustangs spent nearly the entire second half in their end of the field and didn’t come close to a shot on goal until sophomore Haley Fletcher’s shot with 35 seconds left to play. Meanwhile, the Hawks peppered Monmouth keeper Mikayla Cameron (11 saves) with 10 shots while another half dozen whistled just wide of the net.
“The adjustment we made was we wanted to get the ball on the ground a little bit and use our skills,” Murphy said. “With a young group of girls sometimes they want to pound. Once they settled down and got a couple of opportunities it paid off.”
Monmouth coach Gary Trafton didn’t offer any excuses, although he had a few. Three of his starters were out with injury while Fletcher, who scored a school-record 30 goals this season, was held out the first 10 minutes of the second half after colliding with a Sacopee player late in the first half.
“She got hit in the head again,” Trafton said. “We had to go through the procedures and check.”
Trafton had seen the Hawks play twice this season and knew what to expect. They were generally bigger, stronger and more physical than the lineup the Mustangs fielded Wednesday. Cameron made several crucial saves including a couple she tipped over the crossbar.
“Our goalie came through,” Trafton said. “This year she had trouble with high balls and she knocked two over tonight. She came through when she had to.”
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