MADISON — At the moment the play unfolded, Ava Farrar knew exactly what she had to do. The Waynflete junior remembered the times she practiced breakaways just like this one, and she knew what would happen.
“That situation is something that I’ve practiced for years, the breakaway situation where it goes through and I’m able to step between two defenders and get some space,” Farrar said. “That’s just something we’ve practiced for a very long time, so I knew what I was supposed to do.”
Farrar split the two Madison defenders exactly as she’s been coached and fired her shot to the left corner, giving the Flyers their first lead with just over 23 minutes left in the game. Farrar’s goal stood up as the game-winner, lifting No. 5 Waynflete to a 2-1 win over No. 2 Madison in the Class C South girls soccer final.
Waynflete, now 11-4-2, will face Orono in the state championship game at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Hampden Academy. It’s a rematch of last year’s state final won by Orono. This is the fifth regional title for the Flyers in the last nine seasons. Madison ends the season 15-2.
“We were unable to control the middle of the field, to settle the ball. Their forwards came up hard on us and sent those long balls quite a bit. It took us out of our shape in the back sometimes,” Madison co-head coach Erin Wood said. “They found the breakaway there, and it made it difficult for us to answer. We were aware they were going to play that way. It was hard to get people on them fast enough before they used their long kicks to start their offense.”
Madison led at the half, 1-0, scoring 10 minutes into the game after withstanding Waynflete’s pressure for much of the game’s first minutes. When Waynflete goalie Ali Pope was unable to control the ball, Sydney LeBlanc was there for the Bulldogs, lofting a shot to the high left corner for the lead. Madison had chances to increase its lead in the first half, but Madeline Wood’s long shot from the top of the box sailed just wide to the right of the net with 15 minutes to play, and Ashley Emery’s shot with 1:30 in the first half went high.
Early in the game, Wood implored her team to shoot.
“You see it easily here, but they’re in the moment and not seeing the same thing you’re seeing. We do try to say work the ball in if you can, but on the other hand, we said at halftime if you see some space, go ahead, green light. We do have girls who can strike the ball from outside,” Coach Wood said.
Down a goal at the half, there was no panic in Waynflete.
“We just needed to regroup. We knew the stakes,” Farrar said.
“We just talked about all the work we put in all year, and not letting it come down to the first 40 minutes of the game, basically. When we left the field, we wanted to make sure we left it all on the field,” Waynflete coach Todd Dominski added.
The Flyers scored the equalizer off a corner kick with 34 minutes left in the game. Isabel Canning inserted the ball. Farrar settled it and made a pass to Elisabeth Lualdi, who converted the shot past Madison keeper Lauren Hay.
Defensively, the Flyers were led by Canning and Annika Brooks. The main focus was on containing Madeline Wood, Dominski said.
“Wood’s a great player. She can impose her will on people, and I know she’s done that all season. We knew we had to keep her in front of us,” Dominski said. “(Canning) runs the defense back there. She’s just very strong and controls everything in the back.”
Madison graduates just one senior, Wood.
“We’re super proud of this team. As a group, they’ve worked very hard all season,” Coach Wood said. “Just a great group of girls, and it made coaching them so much fun. It made it possible for us to get that deep. That chemistry allowed us to be even more successful than in the past.”
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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