Brunswick High School junior back Ella Gustafson said she figured freshman striker Alexis Morin would be somewhere in the Bangor penalty area when she launched a long cross from the right side into the area with 1:19 left in overtime.
She was right.
Not only was Morin in the penalty area, 10 yards in front of Bangor goalie Emma McNeil, she was also left wide open and she made the Rams pay with a well-placed header that gave Brunswick a 2-1 victory.
“I slipped behind a defender,” explained Morin, whose goal was her team-leading 21st of the season. “I was just trying to put my head on the ball.”
Brunswick earned its Class A North championship since 2009 and the 15-2 Dragons will face Windham in Saturday’s state championship game at Massabesic High School in Waterboro.
Bangor’s Devon St. Louis had nearly won it earlier in overtime off an Emmie Streams pass but her shot from the left side hit the near side post.
Top seed Bangor wound up 16-1. The Rams were seeking their first regional title since 2015.
“Our girls played great. It was a great game. Unfortunately, someone had to lose,” said Bangor coach Andrew Varisco, whose Rams had rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat Brunswick 3-2 in their regular season meeting.
“It just wasn’t our night tonight,” he added.
Junior midfielder Logan Brown staked Bunswick to a 1-0 lead in the first half but senior striker St. Louis equalized with 22:38 remaining in the second half.
St. Louis tied it off a Hannah Sherwood free kick.
Sherwood’s free kick pinballed in the penalty area and St. Louis swung around and hit the ball crisply with the inside of her right foot past goalie Sophia Morin.
Rachel Mathieu had nearly tied it early in the second half when she headed an Anna Connors cross off the post to Morin’s right.
Bangor had an edge in possession and had a 20-18 edge in shot attempts.
Morin finished with 10 saves to McNeill’s 11.
But the Brunswick back line of Morgan Foster, Gustafson and Riley McAllaste did an efficient job keeping Bangor on the perimeter and not allowing the Rams to generate breakaways with their speed.
Streams, Connors and St. Louis were constant threats but always had a couple of Dragons around them.
“We knew we had to contain them and we did a pretty good job,” Gustafson said.
Brunswick coach Martyn Davison was obviously pleased with the win but said he felt Bangor was the better team tonight.
“I feel for them. They deserved something out of this,” Davison said. “They play the game the right way. They passed the ball well. But we were dangerous with our crosses and corners.”
It was Gustafson’s cross that proved decisive.
Davison said it was his team’s heart and determination that won the game for them.
The Dragons had three dangerous corners taken by Kynli Van Leer that created some havoc in the Ram penalty area late in the second half and Brunswick had a good stretch of possession early in the overtime.
Bangor had the better chances in the first half but it was the Dragons who scored the only goal.
Brown was on the left wing 5 yards outside the penalty area when she tried to cross it into the penalty area.
The cross was blocked and the ball came back to her so she launched a shot that was perfectly placed in the upper far corner over the outstretched arms of McNeil.
Morin and McNeil were both tested on a number of occasions and each came up with a number of quality saves.
Morin made back-to-back saves on Streams’ penalty kick and St. Louis’ follow-up with 19:54 left in the half.
Streams didn’t get much on her kick and put it right at Morin, who rejected it with her legs.
St. Louis raced onto the rebound and Morin smothered it in her chest.
Early in the game, Morin robbed St. Louis during a scramble.
After two Bangor shots were blocked, St. Louis used the outside of her foot to try to flick the ball over Morin, but Morin got her hands on it.
McNeil made a positional save early off Molly Taub, who maneuvered around a pair of Ram defenders and created some separation.
But her 14-yard shot from the right side went right into McNeil’s hands.
McNeil kept Bangor within one with her best save of the half three minutes before the intermission.
McAllaster was able to get an open header off a Van Leer corner kick but McNeil dove to her right to grab McAllaster’s one-hopper.