READFIELD — When the Maranacook Community School girls soccer team began preseason workouts, coach Travis Magnusson said something that turned out to be quite prophetic.
“Coach told us in preseason, if we go to overtime in the playoffs, nobody will be better than us. Nobody will work harder than us,” junior Katie Ide said.
Ide made Magnusson’s prediction come true when scored with 7:18 left in overtime, lifting the Black Bears to a 2-1 win over Sacopee Valley in the Class C South semifinals Friday.
No. 4 Maranacook (11-2-3) will visit No. 2 Traip Academy in the regional final Wednesday. Traip upended No. 6 Mt. Abram on Friday. No. 9 Sacopee Valley, which upset top-seed Monmouth in the quarterfinals, finished 10-7-0.
“That’s why you love sports,” Magnusson said of his team’s win. “Katie Ide hit a great shot, but we had four or five hits to get to that shot.”
Maranacook survived a strong Sacopee surge at the start of OT, then mounted the pressure that led to the game-winner. When the ball came to Ide in front of the net, she was alone and had a wide open net on which to shoot.
“It just came to me. It was like slow motion,” Ide said.
The Black Bears took a 1-0 lead midway through the first half when Emily Harper broke free of a Hawks defender and slid a shot into the left corner. It stayed that way for most of the game, with Maranacook missing a few strong chances to increase its lead.
Sacopee gained momentum in the final 10 minutes of the second half, then tied the game with 3:10 left in regulation when Lakyn Hink headed a shot over leaping Maranacook keeper Skyeler Webb.
“Sacopee definitely had momentum. They’re one of the best teams we played all year,” Magnusson said.
“We put a lot more pressure on them in the second half,” Sacopee coach Brian Hink added. “I told them at halftime neither of us was the better team. It was going to come down to breaks.”
It was the second game in as many days for the Hawks, who had to play at Monmouth on Thursday. Coach Hink said he felt fatigue was a factor Friday.
“It changed our energy for sure. It certainly was a factor,” Hink said.
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