4 min read

Perfection isn’t easy to come by. So when the Freeport girls lacrosse team completed an undefeated season Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium, coach Marcia Wood closed her eyes, raised her arms and exalted “Yes!” as loud as she could.

As her senior players surrounded her, holding the Class B championship trophy they had just won by holding off Mt. Ararat, 11-9, in a battle of the unbeaten teams, Wood could only do it once more.

“Such a happy ending,” Wood said. “Such a happy ending. Such a relief. We didn’t talk about the undefeated thing much until kind of the end. (Assistant coach) Karin (Kurry) brought us into the gym to show them some of the old trophies and old banners and tried to get them excited for this and everything. That Wednesday game (in the semifinals) took a lot out of us. We said yesterday at practice, ‘What was our goal today?’ And it was energy. We saw that from the bench, from the goals, and I think that really kind of propelled us.”

Senior midfielders Lana DiRusso (four goals) and Mia Levesque (three goals, assist) led the way for Freeport, as the top-seeded Falcons never trailed against the second-seeded Eagles. Freeport ends the season at 17-0 and as Maine’s only undefeated lacrosse team, boys or girls. Mt. Ararat finishes with a record of 16-1.

Saturday marked Freeport’s second state championship in three years, and the first Class B title in program history. The Falcons were Class C champions in 2023.

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“So many mixed emotions, honestly,” said DiRusso, who said she played a majority of the game nauseous. “I’m obviously overjoyed with our state championship win, but I was kind of sad because that was my last high school game ever. But honestly, overall, just awesome. That was just amazing. I wouldn’t have wanted to do that with any other team.”

Freeport scored six goals from the free position, including five of its first six from the 8-meter mark. Two from Levesque gave the Falcons a 2-0 lead after the first quarter, and three in the second quarter from DiRusso, who was the hero in Wednesday’s double-overtime victory over Greely, helped build a 7-4 lead by halftime.

“Being able to draw those calls is one of the most important things in lacrosse, and being able to know how to get those calls to go your way is so important,” Levesque said.

Sophomore midfielder Ella Tracy scored the other two goals in the first half, off feeds from senior attacker Emma White and Levesque.

Mt. Ararat got on the board 22 seconds into the second quarter, as senior midfielder Islah Godo found senior attacker Evelyn Goudreau, the first of three such connections. Goudreau led the Eagles with five goals, and Godo finished with one goal and four assists. Senior attacker Logan Norton scored the first of her two goals with 42.3 seconds to go in the first half.

Godo and Goudreau opened the third quarter with goals that brought the Eagles within one. White assisted on one goal and scored another to give Freeport another three-goal lead, but Norton and Goudreau closed the gap again, and Freeport led only 9-8 early in the fourth.

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“They kept us on our toes,” Wood said. “They made us make mistakes that we don’t normally make. They kind of took us out of our normal game — we like the passing game — so, they kind of took us out of that passing game for a little bit and made it kind of more of a run-and-gun game, which you know, I don’t love, but in these games, you just got to get through.”

DiRusso and Mt. Ararat’s Avery Beal traded scores to keep it a one-goal game, and junior attacker Elsa Klein scored the game’s final goal from the free position with 5:41 remaining.

“They were staying hungry for the ball,” Levesque said of the Eagles. “Gritty. They were working just as hard as us, which is nice to know that they wanted it just as bad and that the best man wins.”

Freeport senior Hailly Curtis and Mt. Ararat freshman Joy Stewart each made four saves.

“They just left it all out there,” Mt. Ararat coach Brittany Vogt said. “Our senior class, they’re such a special group, it’s fun to see them play. We’re bummed. I think I’m a little more bummed that they’re leaving us. I’m just really close to those girls, and so I think that’s where most of the sadness is coming. And you know, we were in it, and I can’t ask for more.”

Cooper Sullivan covers high school and collegiate sports in Brunswick and the surrounding communities. He is from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he studied at Wake Forest University ('24) and held...

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