WATERVILLE, Maine —- In the 2013 Eastern Maine Class B championship girls soccer game, a nifty Pilar Elias pass sent Sarah Shoulta in for the game-winning goal in the second overtime.
They repeated it 37 seconds into Wednesday’s rematch with the Hawks, and it stood up as the Purple Panthers withstood a wild flurry in the final two minutes to post a 1-0 victory for the Eastern Maine title.
Waterville (17-0-1) earns another crack at defending state champion Cape Elizabeth (12-4-1) on Saturday at Deering High in Portland.
Hermon ended up 15-2.
Waterville’s Elias was a few yards over midfield along the left flank and sent a beautiful curling diagonal through-ball to the right wing. Shoulta raced onto it in full stride, broke in alone and tucked a 14-yard shot inside the far post past Hawks goalkeeper Hailey Perry.
“It was a nice little deja vu from last year,” grinned senior Shoulta.
“It was almost the exact same ball Pilar gave me in double overtime to take the [2-1] win last season,” said Shoulta. “l saw that Pilar had the ball, and I started to break. But I had to be careful not to go offsides. I don’t think the goalie expected it to get through the defense, and when it did, she kind of hesitated. She knew if she came out, I could have taken a touch and gone around her. She thought staying back and containing the angle gave her the best chance to stop the ball, and I was able to put it far post.”
“I tried to angle myself toward the ball. But, on a breakaway, it’s hard to get those,” said Perry.
“Sarah and I read each other’s minds,” said Elias. “I knew she was going to make that run. She was wide open.”
That was the only noteworthy scoring chance of the first half.
Neither Perry nor Waterville’s Gabi Martin had to make a first-half save.
The second half was different as both teams had a number of quality opportunities.
Pilar’s long through balls to the speedy Shoulta created issues for the Hermon defense.
Hermon midfielder and leading scorer Claire Petersen, the Penobscot Valley Conference Co-Player of the Year, created constant problems for the Panther defense, but sophomore Jordan Jabar did an admirable job marking her, and her teammates would move over to provide a double-team on Petersen.
“Petersen is a tremendous player, and the first rule of defense is to take away their No. 1 option,” said Waterville coach Ian Wilson.
Hermon coach M.J. Ball moved Petersen from midfield to striker with 18 minutes left and Petersen had a partial break-in off a Megan Howes pass, but Jabar intervened and played the one-on-one perfectly to prevent a shot.
“I play basketball, so I’ve learned how to play one-on-ones,” said Jabar. “Coach [Wilson] teaches us to push [a top scoring threat] to one side and to not to fall for her moves. We made sure someone was always on her. She’s really tough. She’s quick.”
Hermon had survived some scary moments earlier in the half when a wild, multiple-shot flurry saw Perry come up with a point-blank save and receive help from Deanna Phipps and Emi Higgins, who blocked follow-up attempts.
Perry also raced off her line to smother a Shoulta breakaway later.
In the waning moments, a Savannah Allain’s free kick from just outside the penalty area sailed high and, soon after Petersen left the game with cramps with 1:58 left, an Allain corner kick generated a flurry in the penalty area that saw Brianna Saulter hit the crossbar twice after Alex Allain’s shot deflected over to her.
“I kicked it, it hit the crossbar. I kicked it again, it hit the crossbar again,” said a disappointed Saulter.
“The crossbar was our best friend at the end,” said senior center back Morgann Tortorella, who anchored Waterville’s impressive defensive effort.
“Morgann was the rock of our defense,” said Wilson, who also received quality performances from backs Brooke Ettinger, Cody Veilleux and Rebecca Beringer.
“It was too bad to let in that first goal,” said Petersen. “We could have played a lot better in the first half, but we did better in the second half.”
“The game couldn’t have started any worse and it cost us,” said Ball. “We regrouped in the second half and had three real good chances and hit two posts. It just wasn’t our day. And we don’t feel we played our best.”
Morgan Buck, Phipps and Higgins were stout on defense for Hermon.
Each goalie finished with three saves on 16 shots.