Oxford Hills girls rally past Brewer in Class A North soccer prelim

Oct. 23—It would have been easy for the Oxford Hills High School girls soccer team from South Paris to get frustrated in its Class A North preliminary round game at Brewer on Saturday.

Despite having a sizable edge in possession, the ninth-seeded Vikings found themselves trailing the eighth-seeded Witches 2-0 late in the first half.

But sophomore midfielder Meredith Harthorne provided them with the spark they needed with a late first-half goal and she scored the game-winner with 8:13 left in regulation as Oxford Hills earned a quarterfinal matchup against top seed and undefeated Bangor with a 3-2 triumph.

Senior Lucy Leonard tied it with 30 minutes remaining when her corner kick deflected past Brewer goalie Bella Tanis off one of the Witches.

Oxford Hills, which was shut out in its last two games and was without captain Bella Devivo due to a season-ending knee injury, improved to 6-7-2.

The Witches, who received goals from freshman Devin Horr and Tanis on a penalty kick, concluded a 6-8-1 campaign under interim coach Troy Gravel.

Former head coach David Hamel resigned on Oct. 7 to attend to personal matters.

Oxford Hills freshman goalie Maddy Herrick made three saves on nine Brewer shot attempts while Tanis finished with nine stops on 23 Viking attempts.

Oxford Hills senior center back Trinity Bernard preserved the win with a critical block of a Jordan Doak shot in the waning minutes along with several interventions and clear-outs as the desperate Witches pressed for the equalizer.

Bernard said Harthorne's late first-half goal was very important.

"That gave us momentum and we carried that into the second half," Bernard said.

The goal was set up by a Maddy Miller throw-in to Katie Hallee, who slid it over to Harthorne inside the penalty area.

Harthorne received the ball with her back to the goal and spun to her left and put a well-placed low shot inside the post to the diving Tanis' left.

"I tried to keep it low because their goalie was good at getting balls out of the air," Harthorne said.

Leonard tied it up when her chest-high corner kick deflected in off a Witch player in the middle of the penalty area.

"Nothing you can do about that," Tanis said.

Harthorne had scored her first goal with her right foot but she used her left foot for the game-winner.

She raced down the left side of the penalty area and Jane Leonard slipped the ball across to her. The ball bounced at the last second but Harthorne was able to curl it neatly into the upper far corner to Tanis' left.

"Jane passed it back to me and I tried to go high to the far corner. The ball bounced at the end and I was hoping I could keep it down," said Harthorne, whose two-goal game was her first of the season.

"That was a good shot on her part," Tanis said.

The Witches went into attack mode and put several crosses into the Oxford Hills penalty areas resulting in some wild flurries.

Junior striker Jordan Doak, who was a constant threat along with Horr, dribbled the ball cleverly out of the corner and worked past a defender to set herself up for a 12-yard shot just to the right of Herrick.

But Bernard came over and was able to get her left leg on Doak's shot.

"I was a little nervous about it. ... I couldn't let her score. I wanted a win for the team," Bernard said. "I watched what she was doing with her body and put myself in the right position."

Oxford Hills had the lion's share of possession but Brewer's direct long-ball approach was effective thanks to the quickness and skill of Horr and Doak.

Horr opened the scoring just moments after Herrick sprinted off her line to make an exceptional save on her break-in attempt.

The speedy Horr raced onto a Tanis punt and broke free again but this time she slotted the ball past Herrick.

Later in the half, Brewer was awarded a penalty on an Oxford Hills foul in the penalty area and Tanis smartly tucked the spot kick into the corner to the right of Herrick, who had no chance on the well-placed kick.

"We left everything we had out on the field. We battled until the last second of the game," Tanis said.

"I can't wait for next year," added the junior goalie, whose team has just two seniors on the roster.

One of those seniors, Riley Umel, was outstanding in the back for Brewer.