WINSLOW, Maine — Winslow girls soccer coach Scott Woodsummed up the performance of Caribou goalkeeper Brittany Doak in one word.
“Relentless.”
The Vikings’ senior gave everything she had against tremendous Winslow pressure in Wednesday’s Eastern Maine Class B girls soccer final, but it was too much Alliyah Veilleux. The freshman halfback scored two second-half goals to lead her Black Raiders to a 6-1 victory at the Kennebec Savings Field.
Undefeated Winslow (17-0) advances to its second state championship game in three years and will take on either Falmouth or York on Saturday. Caribou, which had upset Gardiner and Presque Isle on the road to the final, finishes up 11-5-1.
Even though Winslow controlled possession throughout and prevented Caribou from generating too many scoring chances, it was the Vikings who got on the board 4:25 into the match. Abby Small knocked in a rebound off a direct kick by sister Paige Small.
“I came out and it was kind of like a ricochet, it was just unlucky,” said Winslow goalie Jessica Gordon.
Doak then kept the Raiders off the board with several gems.
Winslow finally broke through four minutes before halftime. The speedy Veilleux got behind the Vikings’ defense down the right flank and crossed the ball in the goalmouth to an unmarked Kaylee Constable, who tucked it inside a wide-open far post.
“If we didn’t get that goal, I think momentum would’ve stayed on their side,” Wood said.
The Raiders regrouped at halftime and, 6:37 into the second stanza, Veilleux put the hosts up for good. Once again she broke down the right flank after accepting a clearing pass from Kim Curtis and placed the ball inside the far post.
Haley Levasseur followed with a highlight-reel unassisted tally from well outside the penalty box, curling a high shot into the upper left corner. Madeleine Daily and Veilleux had the next two goals, both unassisted, with Veilleux assisting on Myranda Dodge’s tally to cap the scoring.
The Vikings had some difficulty pushing the ball up the field against the Raiders.
“We tried to go forward and unfortunately we had to play defense,” coach Todd Albert said.
With that being the case and the Raiders controlling the midfield, Caribou’s midfielders became worn down as the game progressed and Winslow had plenty of space to attack in the center of the field.
“Yeah I’d say we had a lot of space but we did good distributing [the ball],” said Curtis.
Winslow held Caribou to one shot in the second half while holding a 24-7 edge overall, but Doak made 12 saves and sometimes came to the top of the penalty box to swarm on loose balls.
“She made some great saves and kept us in the game, but it just didn’t work out today,” Albert said.
Wood added, “She got to balls I thought were definite goals and she stopped them.”
Winslow didn’t panic after trailing 1-0.
“We just came together and talked to each other and told each other that we need to keep going, keep working hard, and I think all the excitement from today just kept it going,” said Gordon, who had five saves.
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