AUBURN — To some, conference championship games are just glorified exhibitions. It was much more than that for Oak Hill and Lisbon on Friday afternoon.

Throughout the second half, players on both sidelines screamed and bounced up and down. When it was over, participants from both sides were in tears for different reasons.

To get to the end took nearly two and a half hours. After two scoreless overtimes, Lisbon’s Bree Daigle punched one in on the fifth round of penalty corners, and the Greyhounds defeated Oak Hill, 2-1, in the Mountain Valley Conference championship game at St. Dominic Academy.

Oak Hill had defeated Lisbon twice during the regular season, by scores of 4-0 and 2-0.

“Our goal coming in was, win or lose, we want to get a goal,” said Lisbon coach Julie Petrie, who wiped away a couple tears after the game. “We knew we could play better. We had to play harder. We changed a bunch of our strategies defensively. It was important, and I think it’s good momentum going into playoffs.”

“Great effort by both teams,” Oak Hill coach Betsy Gilbert said. “The girls laid it all out there, and it’s just one of those things, a bounce our way type of thing.”

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The Raiders went ahead 1-0 with 18:29 left in the first half when Alexis Fuller converted a pass from Danielle Samson. Oak Hill had six penalty corners over the final 11 minutes of the half, and Lisbon defender Mia Durgin was the main reason the Raiders were unable to increase their lead.

Lisbon’s Molly Nicholson tied the score 6:37 into the second half, and the fun was just starting.

Kate Philbrick nearly gave the Greyhounds the lead midway through the second half, but Oak Hill goalie Megan Labbe came out for a sliding save. Lisbon had five corners in a span of five minutes, and one former Lisbon player spent the second half with pom-poms and exhorting her former teammates. It got so loud that Gilbert screamed “White timeout!” As loud as she could, but didn’t get a timeout because the officials couldn’t hear her.

Oak Hill had a 4-0 advantage in corners in the overtimes, but neither team got one in the cage. The game went to 6-on-6 penalty corners, and things got even more intense.

Lisbon believed Oak Hill had too many defenders on Lisbon’s first corner. Oak Hill believed Lisbon had too many offensive players on its winning penalty corner. With sunset minutes away, St. Dom’s athletic director Gene Keene, representing the MVC, sought clarification on some issues.

Amidst this chaos, neither team scored on its first four corners. Finally, on corner No. 5, Daigle got behind the defense and scored. Although the referees explained before the corners started that the team that went second would get a chance to tie, the Lisbon players were so excited that they twice began celebrating before some of their teammates reminded them the game wasn’t over.

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Lisbon committed a foul on Oak Hill’s corner, giving the Raiders a second corner. Another foul resulted in a third corner. Finally, Oak Hill’s last shot went wide, and the game was officially a Lisbon victory.

“Very emotional for our seniors,” Gilbert said. “They were really looking forward to this. This is one of the things that they put on their goal board. So it’s a little heart-breaking for them. The girls played hard. I’m really, really proud of them for what they’ve done.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Matt_DiFilippo


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