FARMINGTON — Mt. Blue field hockey coach Jody Harmon knew exactly where the credit for a 2-1 victory over Skowhegan on Thursday should be directed.
“My defense just played incredible. Gracie Foss just had the game of her life. She’s been playing like that all season, but this was just incredible,” Harmon said. “The heart and desire of her and Kayleigh Fontaine, center back, was just amazing. Every time (Skowhegan) tried, they were right there to stop them and boom, back out.”
The win gave the Cougars (12-0-1) a rare regular season sweep over Skowhegan (10-2-1).
“I feel amazing. We worked really hard for this one,” Foss, a junior, said. “In practice (Harmon) makes us work extremely hard and that shows in our games.”
Mt. Blue scored the game-winning goal on the final play of the first half. The Cougars were awarded a penalty corner as time expired, and freshman Molly Harmon was able to put home a rebound off the pads of Skowhegan goalie Leah Savage for a 2-1 lead.
“It’s hard to get scored on right at halftime. It was a well-played game. It was back and forth. I think today, we’re young in front and it showed sometimes. But we’re getting better,” Skowhegan coach Paula Doughty said.
From there, the Cougars were able to withstand a strong Skowhegan attack over the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Indians had three penalty corners in the first five minutes of the second half, but were unable to push across the tying goal. As the Cougars practiced and prepared for other opponents and recent games, they still spent time getting ready for Skowhegan.
“We’ve been preparing for this for the last two weeks. When it came to this game, we had work extra hard,” Fontaine, a senior, said.
Added Foss: “We were a lot stronger. We knew they had hard drives, so we knew we had to always be down and stop everything.”
Skowhegan took a 1-0 lead with 18:49 left in the first half, when freshman Alexis Michonski scored on Mt. Blue keeper Erika McArthur (six saves). The Cougars tied the game just over two minutes later, when senior Hannah LeClair scored with an assist from Rebecca Harmon.
Savage made nine saves for Skowhegan, including a few down the stretch as the Cougars tried to increase their lead.
“I think they looked like a little more seasoned team than us today, because we had so many freshmen and sophomores playing,” Doughty said. “We came out better in the second half.”
The win all but clinched the top seed in the upcoming Class A North tournament for Mt. Blue.
“We have one more game in the regular season. We have to beat Oxford Hills. We’re just going to focus on that and go from that,” Harmon said.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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