In the quarterfinals, Mt. Blue defeats Mt. Ararat after the penalty

TOPSHAM — Three deep breaths is all it takes for Brie Griffin of Mt. Blue to calm down in a stressful moment.

The senior captain performed the routine often during Tuesday’s Class A North field hockey quarterfinal against Mount Ararat, which was decided by a penalty corner shootout after a tie early in the second half.

Griffin scored off a rebound off a save on the Cougars’ first try in a 2-1 win over the fifth-seeded Mount Blue Eagles.

“I thought, ‘It’s now or never,'” Griffin said. “I have to do it, if I don’t want this to be my last field hockey game, I have to do it right now.” So I just faked it as hard as I could. It was a big relief when that happened because I was really nervous and anxious going into those three overtimes, but it was a big weight off my shoulders when we did it.”

The Eagles (10-5) got a chance to make a play, but the Mount Blue (11-4) defense forced a fumble.

“We came to play and we played with so much heart and they never gave up,” Mount Ararat head coach Krista Chase said. “There is no regret. This is what we asked for.”

About three minutes into the second overtime, Mount Ararat’s Kamryn Chase took a shot from the top of the circle that went into the net but was deflected.

“I’m not really sure (why the goal was disallowed),” Chase said. “I guess they said it was high but it went out of the keeper’s box so we thought it was a goal. But from their point of view it was high.”

Camryn Chase scored the first goal of the game on a Krist Cohen penalty with 1:03 left before halftime.

Despite the overall advantage in penalty corners (13-6) and shots on goal (4-1), it was difficult for the Cougars to take advantage of quality possession in the first half. Alyssa Parker scored Mount Blue’s first goal off an assist from Kali Judkins just over a minute into the third quarter.

“(I had to) calm them down and contain them because they were getting calls that they don’t like to get themselves,” said head coach Mt. Blue by Julie Lajoie. “It was just necessary to reduce the level of disappointment. We try to focus on controllability, try to let go of uncontrollability and keep them sane. And they’ve done a pretty good job of resetting every quarter.”

With the win, Mount Blue moves on to face No. 1 Skowhegan (13-2) in Saturday’s semifinal round. The River Hawks defeated #8 Lewiston 3-0 on Tuesday.