DEXTER, Maine — Last year at this time, Maicee Gustin was a freshman backup goalkeeper for Dexter’s girls varsity soccer team practicing for a preliminary playoff game.
This year, she’s the starting goaltender — for Dexter’s varsity field hockey team. And she has been preparing to play in her first Eastern Maine Class C regional title game Monday.
Her top-seeded Tigers will try to win their second straight regional title against No. 3 seed and fellow 13-3 team Foxcroft Academy at Weatherbee Athletic Complex in Hampden.
Dexter and FA will start off a regional title tripleheader at 3:30 p.m. The Class B game between 13-2-1 Nokomis of Newport and 17-0 Gardiner follows at 5:30 p.m. and the A game between 15-1 Messalonskee of Oakland and 16-0 Skowhegan winds things up at 7:30 p.m.
Although Gustin enjoyed playing soccer last year, she likes field hockey even more.
“Field hockey seemed more like my type of sport, so I decided to try it,” Gustin said. “It’s more aggressive and I like it better.”
She likes the equipment better, too.
“I like the extra protection. Playing soccer, you’re not wearing anything, but in field hockey I get to wear all this, and can still move around,” she explained. “I also run more.”
Prior to this fall, Gustin’s total field hockey experience involved a season in eighth grade and a half-season as a youth in a local recreational league.
“She approached me about playing last spring and asked if I could help her to get her up to par,” said Dexter head coach Margaret Veazie. “I couldn’t believe it. The timing was incredible because our starting keeper last year graduated.”
Veazie didn’t even have a candidate to take over before Gustin literally came out of nowhere.
“The day she stepped foot on the practice field, she was the top contender to be our starting goalie,” said Veazie. “No one else at the time was stepping up to do it. Someone would have, but this way we didn’t have to take anyone off the field to do it.”
If there was any kind of shakedown period, it wasn’t obvious. Gustin worked a shutout in her first game en route to a total of eight. She has allowed just one goal in seven of the other eight games and two once.
“She just started right in almost like she’s been with the team right along,” said Veazie. “She’s been huge for us.”
Monday offers another tough test for Gustin and her teammates as Foxcroft is one of three teams to beat the Tigers this season and the owner of an 11-game win streak — not that Gustin will be awed.
“She’s the sweetest, humblest girl. She doesn’t even think she’s that great,” Veazie said. “When she asked about playing, she wasn’t sure she was good enough for our team.”
Not only has she been good enough, Gustin’s a crucial element in Dexter’s drive for its seventh Eastern and sixth state championship during Veazie’s 11 seasons as head coach.
Class B — Before last year, regional semifinals, let alone state finals, were uncharted territory for Nokomis.
But after going 14-2-1 and winning the East B crown, simply making the playoffs isn’t enough for the Warriors anymore.
“It was different last year because we’d had successful seasons, but nothing like that,” said Nokomis coach Katie Thompson. “We were just happy to be in the semifinals. This year we’re more experienced and less awed by it all.”
And they want a return trip to states.
To do so, they’ll have to do something no other team has done this season: beat Gardiner, which defeated Nokomis 2-0 both in the regular season and in a conference title game.
Thompson says to do that, her Warriors will have to capitalize on early scoring chances and maintain their intensity for the full 60 minutes.
Nokomis’ key players include junior goalie Maria Adams, who has eight shutouts to her credit; senior left wing Sabrina Vaillancourt, the team’s leading scorer with 19 goals; junior center forward Jordan McInnis (17 goals), and center mid Marissa Shaw (nine goals).