MONMOUTH — Lydia Giguere scored with less than five minutes remaining in overtime as No. 5 Waynflete defeated No. 1 Monmouth Academy 2-1 in a Class C South regional semifinal Saturday afternoon.
The goal, Giguere’s second of the game, came off a set piece. The ball bounced off a couple players on both sides before Giguere found it at her feet.
“It hit a couple of people and bounced out to me,” Giguere said. “I called off one of our players, and we practice those kinds of shots, so I had confidence that if I hit it in one spot, it would go in.”
The Flyers (10-3-2) tied the game on a Giguere header with 9:51 remaining in the game. She and her coach, Todd Dominski, said that goal gave the team the confidence that they’d eventually score another.
“It seemed like we definitely grabbed a good amount of momentum there,” Dominski said. “It took forever to get it, and it took formation changes, but once we got it, it gave us the confidence.”
Trailing 1-0 without 20 minutes to go in regulation, Waynflete began sending more girls on the attack and kept pressuring Monmouth’s freshman keeper, Katie Harris.
“We moved people up and tried to get the ball forward and hold it so we could get something good on goal,” he said. “We knew they were a dangerous team on the counter attack, so we had to be careful of that.”
The No. 1 seeded Mustangs (14-2) couldn’t capitalize on their many opportunities, especially in the first half, coach Gary Trafton said.
“We had a lot more momentum in the first half, and we had a lot more opportunities,” Trafton said. “We just missed them, and they put a little more pressure on us.”
As the second half continued, Waynflete’s attack thwarted much of what Monmouth wanted to do offensively. Trafton said his girls couldn’t control possession long enough to mount any real serious challenges.
It might have been a No. 1 seed versus a No. 5 on paper, but the rematch of last season’s regional final won by Waynflete, was a battle of two powerhouse sides.
“If anybody knows anything about soccer, they know that’s not a 1-5,” Trafton said. “They are a very good team, and we knew that to expect, but they were more physical than we were.”
Like an evenly matched prize fight, the two teams traded punches throughout the first half. Waynflete put a shot off the post in the closing minutes and had several other quality chances go just wide or over the crossbar during the first 40 minutes.
The game’s first quality chance came in the seventh minute on a couple of corner kicks. The home team got on the scoreboard when freshman Audrey Fletcher made a soft touch pass to her sister Haley, who put the ball into the net with 12:32 for a 1-0 Monmouth lead.
Giguere said she was happy with the way her team held defensively after allowing the first goal, especially considering Monmouth had scored 84 goals in 14 games this season.
“We really hoped to score the first goal, but it didn’t happen that way,” Giguere said. “I’m very proud of our team for not giving up any more goals.”
Both teams battled cold and at times rainy conditions throughout the game, and Trafton said he could sense that the players were trying to keep their footing. Giguere said after the first few minutes, the weather didn’t bother her.
“You definitely wanted to be a little more careful,” she said.
Jason Pafundi — 621-5663
jpafundi@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @jasonpafundiKJ
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