WATERVILLE — Ninety minutes proved little Tuesday afternoon, with the Messalonskee and Waterville girls soccer teams settling for a 2-2 draw at Thomas College in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference crossover game between the Class A and Class B schools.
“I think a tie was fair,” Waterville coach Mark Serdjenian said. “For both of us, it should be a valuable tie. So, yeah, I think it was a fair result. I’m glad we played on a nice surface, because it made for a much better game.”
It might have been the fairest result under a light rain on Smith Field’s slick turf, but various samplings from the match might have suggested otherwise.
Messalonskee (4-1-1) had all of the ball in a first half that saw the Purple Panthers go ahead 1-0 on Hannah LeClair’s goal in the 36th minute — one of only three on-target chances of the first 40 minutes for Waterville.
Waterville (4-1-1) held the Eagles to only four shots on goal in the second half, yet the Eagles scored on their only two corner kicks of regulation time to take a 2-1 lead through 80 minutes.
The Panthers never even scored the equalizer themselves, instead benefiting from an own-goal in the third minute of lengthy second-half stoppage time to send the game to extra time.
By the time Waterville’s Anika Elias, in the 82nd minute, and Messalonskee’s Edin Sisson, in the 90th minute, were both turned away from golden-goal chances late on, both sides were more than happy to split the points.
“It was awesome to go 2-1 up, because it was hard-fought,” Messalonskee coach Penny Stansfield said. “But a tie is a great result. Five years ago we lost 16-nil to Waterville, so this shows a little bit how far we’ve come.”
The Eagles had the ball for nearly 70 percent of the first half, but they were lacking urgency in the side. They were able to generate shots — including Lydia Bradfield’s one-timed volley from six yards out in the fifth minute — but very few dangerous chances. All of Messalonskee’s control came from winning 50-50 balls deep in the midfield while not allowing Waterville to break its high line in the back.
Messalonskee kept Elias from getting a foothold in the game, though the same couldn’t be said for senior midfielder Mackenzie St. Pierre — and St. Pierre sprung sophomore Sadie Garling into space on the right side. Eagle goalkeeper Hannah DelGiudice (four saves) made a fine diving stop at the far post, but the rebound came to an unmarked LeClair for the easy finish and the 1-0 lead the Panthers would take into halftime.
While Messalonskee didn’t have as much of the ball in the second half, the Eagles did begin applying pressure after the hour mark. The junior midfielder Sisson’s corner kick in the 68th minute pulled the Eagles even, via the head of senior Lauren Pickett, and six minutes later Sisson picked out junior Elena Guarino running onto another corner from the right side for the go-ahead strike.
“I always look for the short ball first, but if it’s (not available) I’ll go for the long ball far post. There’s always a bunch of people there to go in,” Sisson said. “Honestly, I got really mad after the first half. I was like ‘We need to score’ because we had good possession and had the ball most of the time I felt.”
The Eagles had a 2-1 lead with under 10 minutes remaining, but the dramatics were far from over.
St. Pierre was allowed to dribble her way into the attacking third as the clock counted down, finally forced to lay the ball off for LeClair in the right side of the 18-yard box. LeClair tried to cut it back and cross it, but her bid took a deflection off an Eagle defender. Aided by the slippery surface and a fooled DelGiudice, the Messalonskee own-goal to the short side post sent it off to extra time.
“I was shooting with my left foot. It was meant to be a cross,” LeClair said. “I think the defender, her body just wasn’t turned the right way, and it just hit and bounced bad. Especially when it’s slippery like this, it went right past the goalie.”
And, with that, and a couple of stellar saves — from DelGiudice on Elias and from counterpart Ally Drew (11 saves) on Sisson’s bid from 45 yards with only seconds remaining — it was a draw.
“(Messalonskee) is very good, and we said the first five minutes coming out of the half and the last five minutes of the game, that’s when you know you need to play the hardest,” LeClair said. “We knew this would be a tough game.”
“Definitely not satisfied with a tie,” Sisson said. “I still think we could have won. I still have the adrenaline going from it, but it was a good match.”
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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