WATERVILLE, Maine — The Skowhegan High School Indians simply find a way to get it done.
Despite being outshot 28-4 and clearly outplayed, the Indians claimed their 15th consecutive Class A North championship as they upset top seed Messalonskee 2-1 Tuesday night behind the spectacular goalkeeping of senior Leah Kruse and freshman Lizzie York’s goal with 14.4 seconds left in overtime.
Skowhegan snapped a four-game losing streak at the hands of the Eagles and improved to 15-2.
Messalonskee of Oakland wound up 16-1.
Skowhegan will play No. 3 Thornton Academy of Saco in Saturday’s noon state title game at the University of Maine in Orono. TA, now 15-2, knocked off No. 1 Cheverus of Portland 4-1 in the Class A South final.
Kruse finished with 11 saves as she was under siege most of the night.
Messalonskee had a 14-2 edge in penalty corners and each team scored off one.
Skowhegan forays into the Messalonskee end were few and far between but the Indians did a respectable job protecting Kruse and not allowing any breakaways.
Junior Hayley Thebarge staked Skowhegan to a 1-0 lead when Cassidy Clement slid the ball over to her on the right side and her shot deflected off a Messalonskee stick and popped high in the air before dropping behind Eagles goalie Hannah Pinney.
Messalonskee answered when Emily Hogan inserted the ball to Haley Lowell at the top of the penalty circle and she pushed the ball into the circle before blistering a low shot that beat Kruse to her left hand side.
Messalonskee nearly took a deserved lead early in the second half during a scramble but the alert Thebarge cleared the ball off the goal line with Kruse beaten on the shot.
“That’s what the coaches tell us to do,” said Thebarge.
The Eagles failed to convert on three penalty corners in overtime and it cost them dearly when Thebarge made a run up the right wing and passed it to freshman Maliea Kelso who slid it across to York in the middle of the circle.
“I was going for what I could get,” said York, whose low shot slipped past the left pad of Pinney.
The aggressive Kruse was magnificent as she darted off her line to cut down angles and absorb shot after shot. She also had some scrambly saves.
The Eagles also squandered several glorious chances by missing the cage.
“Leah played out of her mind,” said Messalonskee coach Katie McLaughlin. “And we definitely struggled to put the ball in (the cage) net on corners today. We definitely had opportunities. We just couldn’t finish. But I’m very proud of this team. For the most part, we dominated this game but we just couldn’t hit that goal.”
“We worked on defense all week and it paid off,” said Skowhegan coach Paula Doughty. “We made some mistakes but we kept coming back at them. This team has improved more from day one until now than any team I’ve ever coached.”
A grinning Kruse noted that she was “really busy today.
“But we played amazing defense. The ball was in our half most of the game but we were able to capitalize on the few chances that we had and that helped,” said Kruse.