READFIELD — No matter the sport, overtime means a brand-new ballgame — but to earn that chance, as the Winslow field hockey team learned Wednesday, you have to get there first.

With a goal early in the fourth quarter and an onslaught of late-game pressure, Maranacook had the Black Raiders on their heels in the fourth quarter of the 2022 season opener. Yet a late timeout and the pre-overtime intermission gave Winslow chances to regroup, and it didn’t take long for the much-needed breathers to pay dividends.

Winslow defeated Maranacook 2-1 in overtime of Wednesday’s cross-class showdown at Maranacook Community High School. The win came as Nevaeh Duplessie found the back of the cage just more than two minutes after the restart to give the Black Raiders a hard-fought result.

“We knew that this game was going to be a challenge for us, and it was,” said Winslow head coach Mary Beth Bourgoin. “We have very similar systems and setups, and they’re a team that plays very hard. They really made us go out and work for it.”

Maranacook controlled the ball in the Winslow half for much of the first quarter with the Black Raiders looking to catch the Black Bears on a fastbreak. Winslow nearly succeeded midway through the opening period as they controlled possession near the Maranacook goal, but Annabelle Brann kept the game scoreless with a clutch stop and clearance just feet from the cage.

Maranacook denied Winslow again late in the second quarter as two saves from Esmé Jamison kept the Black Raiders off the scoreboard. Three minutes into the second half, though, Dominique Giroux-Pare made the breakthrough for Winslow as she scored her team’s opening goal of the season.

Winslow, though, failed to capitalize on a few chances to double the lead — and with 11:46 left to play, Maranacook made the Black Raiders pay. After Winslow failed to clear the ball near the cage, Kasey Mushlit rounded the goaltender and bagged the equalizer for the Black Bears.

The minutes that followed were dicey for Winslow as Maranacook used its game-tying goal as a source of momentum late. The Black Bears put major pressure deep in Winslow territory over the next six minutes before Bourgoin used a tool that Maine high school field hockey coaches haven’t had in three years.

“Our girls knew that they had panicked down there, and I’m just grateful that we have that one timeout added back into the rules this year,” Bourgoin said. “I wanted to let them work through it and get it past the 50 so we would be able to get that timeout and reset.”

Although Maranacook didn’t let up, the pause was enough to see Winslow through to the added period. Then, just 2:14 into overtime, Duplessie found the winner for the Black Raiders after a bounce off a teammate’s stick provided the senior with a chance she buried.

“I just saw the ball hit off of Sabrina (York)’s stick, and it kind of just popped over right to me,” said Duplessie, a senior forward. “I looked up and headed straight for the goal, and I was in the right place to shoot. It felt really great.”

The matchup, as Bourgoin noted, was one of two teams playing similar styles of field hockey. Winslow was at its best when getting the ball inside its own circle and pushing forward for breakaways, and Maranacook, though less aggressive in that pursuit, had a similar strategy.

Although it took everything her team had, Bourgoin was thrilled to get that mesh of styles in the opening game of the season. Being on both the giving and receiving end of the action, she said, is something that stands to pay off for Winslow down the road. 

“I feel it was good for us to see that in the first game,” Bourgoin said. “It gave us a taste of what we can give to other teams but also what we could face in certain situations. … We have a lot of work to do, but we won a tough one today.”

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