MONMOUTH — Arianna Giguere didn’t want to be caught flat-footed with her team’s season on the line. So when a crossing pass from Waynflete teammate Ava Farrar squirted through the hands of Monmouth’s goalie in front of the net, the senior forward knew exactly what to do.

Giguere scored 4:29 into overtime to give No. 6 Waynflete a 3-2 win over No. 4 Monmouth in the Class C South girls soccer final Wednesday afternoon.

The Flyers (14-4-0) will face Orono at 10 a.m. Saturday at Presque Isle Middle School in the Class C state title game.

“My idea was just to pressure the keeper no matter what, so when the ball popped out in her hands, I couldn’t believe it,” Giguere said. “I was right there to put it in and that was that.”

Farrar and Lydia Giguere also scored for the Flyers. Emily Grandahl and Haley Fletcher scored for Monmouth (12-3-2), which rallied from a 2-0 first-half deficit to tie the game.

“We never gave up throughout the entire game,” Arianna Giguere said. “We took it upon ourselves to really focus on what our goal was and we weren’t going to stop at anything until we got there.”

Facing the two-goal deficit with 6:53 left in the first half, the Mustangs got the spark they needed when they were awarded a penalty shot that Grandahl booted past Waynflete keeper Ali Pope (nine saves).

Early in the second half, Pope made a terrific diving save to rob Sidney Wilson to maintain the lead temporarily. On the subsequent corner kick, Fletcher knocked in the serve from Sammy Grandahl to tie the game with 31:29 to go.

“Four of the goals today were done on set pieces — corner kicks, throw-ins, PK, and then the last one just squirted through,” Monmouth coach Gary Trafton said. “I thought we had it cleared out, but that girl (Giguere) is a heck of a player. We had two girls on her most of the game because I knew she was that good.”

“As you get to this point in the season, it’s what you’re going to see in the games. We’ve had close games like this all year,” Waynflete coach Todd Dominski said. “It’s just different stakes today.”

Waynflete had a couple of chances to take the lead later in the half, one a header off a corner that just cleared the crossbar, another a shot by Farrar that went off the bottom of the crossbar.

“I think there was a lot of mental toughness that got us through the game,” Farrar said. “I’m just really proud of my team for putting in the work and giving it 100 percent.”

After surviving two early opportunities for the Mustangs that went wide left, Farrar put the Flyers in front with a goal off a throw-in from Arianna Giguere with 25:03 left in the first half.

“It was on a set play that we had practiced a lot so I knew where I was supposed to be,” Farrar said. “There was this little space, so I just ran through it and tried to get a foot on the ball and it just hopped right in.”

Two minutes later, Lydia Giguere made it 2-0 collecting a clear attempt by the Mustangs and booting it in from about 25 yards out.

The Flyers last appeared in the state championship game in 2013, when they also faced Orono and won in double-overtime to make it back-to-back state titles.

“We had a really, really bad game (a 7-0 loss to Sacopee Valley) in the regular season. After that bad game, we kind of got our feet under us and started playing as a team,” Dominski said. “As we got into the playoffs, our confidence just kept growing and growing.”

The Mustangs graduate seven seniors after making their first regional title game appearance since 2000.

“The kids played really well. I can’t ask for any more. They gave everything they had,” Trafton said. “When it was 2-0, they could have just blew the gates open and we could have just folded and said that was it. But they didn’t. They hung in there and battled back. I’m very proud of the girls.”

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5640

rwhitehouse@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33

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