AUGUSTA — After being bottled up by a stubborn Mt. Ararat defense during regulation play, Cony broke out for one big play in overtime Tuesday as the field hockey teams squared off in a Class A North quarterfinal game.

Junior Kami Lambert converted a penalty corner with a hard right to left shot to give the Rams a 1-0 victory and a spot in Friday’s semifinal round.

Fourth-seeded Cony (8-6-1) will face the top seed, defending state champion Skowhegan, at 3 p.m. Fifth-seeded Mt. Ararat finishes at 9-6-0.

Neither team generated much offense Tuesday. Cony finished with eight shots on goal while the visiting Eagles had three and none in the second half. Lambert changed that when she took a pass from Julia Reny and scored from 10 yards out with 4:47 left in the first overtime period.

“When there’s an overtime, you get that feeling like in your gut,” Lambert said. “You have to get the ball in the cage so you’re really focused and in tune to what’s going on.”

The Eagles held an edge in play in the first half despite Cony’s 6-1 advantage in penalty corners. Jessica Lee made three tough saves in the half and Cony picked up its defense in the second half.

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“Mt. Ararat came ready to play and, right off the bat, we knew it was going to be a game today,” Cony coach Holly Daigle said. “We had a tough time transitioning the ball up the field in the first half. We talked that everybody has to be a defender and we made that adjustment in the second half.”

The Rams defeated Mt. Ararat 3-1 in Topsham during the regular season, but expected a tougher battle Tuesday.

“We saw them very early in the season,” Daigle said. “And a lot can happen from game 1 to game 15. Coach (Krista) Chase is a great coach. I knew she was going to have her team prepared.”

Chase, who played and later coached at Cony, has been steadily building the program at Mt. Ararat.

“I said to my seniors, the last four years this program has really grown because of their leadership, their dedication and their commitment which we’re trying to turn around at Mt. Ararat,” Chase said. “And that’s the reason we’re playing so competitively with Cony today.”

The Rams didn’t generate a shot on goal in the second half until nearly 15 minutes had elapsed, but they hit goalie Lily Schenk (seven saves) with a five-shot flurry in which she stopped two point blank shot from Cari Hopkins. The game reverted to defensive form after that although the Rams held second-half advantages in shots, 5-0, and corner, 5-3.

“They hit it hard and they’re really fast,” Chase said. “And we prepared for that. Their overall team speed is faster than us. We worked on double-teaming. We worked on little things to slow them down so we could catch up on some of those breakaways.”

Cony lost twice in the regular season to Skowhegan, both by 5-0 scores, but has shown improvement down the stretch by winning its last five games.

“We had a really tough schedule this year,” Daigle said. “But the Gardiner win I think really propelled us. That was big for team morale and showed what we were capable of doing. Hopefully, we can keep that momentum going.”


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