Mt. Blue field hockey gets key win over Messalonskee

Mt .Blue’s Grace Allen, center, celebrates with her teammates after scoring to tie the Cougars game against Messalonskee on Thursday Farmington. The Cougars won, 2-1. At the left is Messalonskee’s Chloe Masse.(Rich Abrahamson/Staff Photographer)

FARMINGTON — The clearest message of how well the Mt. Blue field hockey team performed Thursday came via Grace Allen’s Apple Watch.

As the Cougars were set to go through the handshake line following a 2-1 victory over Messalonskee in a Class A North battle, the Mt. Blue senior got a text message from her dad. “Best I’ve seen you guys play,” it read.

This certainly was a signature performance by Mt. Blue, which beat the Eagles in the penultimate game of the regular season without its top player, Morgan Hersey. Messalonskee, Mt. Blue and Mt. Ararat are in a tight battle for second place in the Heal point standings, but all three are in good position for a home quarterfinal game as a top-four seed.

“We had some big shoes to fill and had to have girls step up to fill those holes, and that’s what the girls did,” said Mt. Blue coach Julie Lajoie. “I believed in them, and I think this is going to make them believe in each other.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

Mt. Blue (11-2) applied pressure early, dominating the first quarter after a strong stretch from Messalonskee over the first three minutes. However, the Eagles struck first when Addie Hafford scored with seven minute left in the half.

Allen scored the tying goal with 12:13 left in the third quarter. Less than three minutes later, Brooklyn Webber redirected a shot by Lily Huntley into the left side of the cage to give Mt. Blue the lead.

“Lily had a really nice hard, direct shot that was headed for (the goalie’s) pads, and I just stuck my stick out there and was able to put it into the corner,” Webber said. “It’s something we’ve been practicing; we worked on it a lot yesterday.”

Messalonskee had an opportunity to tie it when it was awarded a penalty corner just before time expired. The resulting shot went inches wide, leading Mt. Blue players to mob goalie Gwen Lesperance in celebration.

WHAT IT MEANS

• Mt. Blue proved it can hang with Class A North’s best even without Hersey. The Cougars will be without the senior for the rest of the season after she suffered a fractured femur and torn ACL on Oct. 4 against Fryeburg Academy.

“I think (this win) is really going to bring our team together and help us go all the way,” Allen said. “We knew we had to play as a team, and it all just clicked. … It’s just a super-big mood-booster that really brings us all closer as a group. We’re really proud of ourselves.”

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“We’ve beaten Messo over the summer here and there, but this is the first time we’ve beaten them during the season. It was a big, necessary step for them to believe in themselves that they could do it.” — Lajoie