PORTLAND – Physically bruised and beaten, St. Dom’s bent.

And bent.

And bent.

Finally – unceremoniously – the team that prided itself on the “bend” finally broke.

It wasn’t the glorious ending to an otherwise perfect season for which the Saints were hoping, but more than anything, Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Central in the Class C state field hockey championship displayed another side of the team: It’s heart.

With 12:10 to play, St. Dom’s sniper Mary Lewis had a breakaway.

That was nothing new. Many of her 14 goals this season came one-on-one with the goaltender.

But, after deking the goaltender, Lewis stumbled. The ball skidded off the turf ahead of her and out of play. Lewis fell into a rolling heap on the synthetic surface.

“I was going all out; I was just in the zone,” said Lewis. “Then I hit the turf when I went to hit the ball. (The field) is a lot faster than normal, and it’s hard to run on it with a torn muscle. It affected me, but it shouldn’t have, really.”

Yes, Lewis said torn muscle.

“She’s been babying that sore groin for the last half a year,” said St. Dom’s coach Brian Kay. “She gave it her all today, what she could do, but she wasn’t 100 percent.”

Still, after a couple of near-breakaways in the first half, Lewis commanded enough respect from Central – the defending Class C champs – to draw a defensive shadow as she hung around midfield, waiting for her next break.

Lewis was never at 100 percent.

Senior captain Chelsea At. Onge-May started the game healthy, but she, too, suffered an injury at an inopportune time, taking a ball off the inside of the knee while defending against one of Central’s 18 penalty corners on the morning.

“I was flying out, and as she hit the ball, it popped right up into my knee,” said St. Onge-May. “That didn’t feel to good.”

St. Onge-May, the only holdover from the Saints’ last state title game appearance in 2003, hobbled to the sideline. She returned in the second half after icing the knee for the final five minutes of the first half and all of halftime.

But she wasn’t the same.

“I still feel a little shaky to be honest,” said St. Onge-May. “I don’t think I was any more tentative than if I had been uninjured in the second half, though. It’s the state championship. We were here to put it all out on the line.”

Her attitude was impeccable, but Central didn’t cut the Saints’ defense, where St. Onge-May plays, any slack in the second half, reeling off 13 penalty corners.

“She’s the only player we have that had been here with the 2003 team that came to states,” said Kay. “It was huge on defense. We need that experience back there. The first half, it wasn’t too, too bad, but she never really came back.”

And then there was Katie Landry. More of an offensive midfielder this season thanks to solid defensive play from the fullbacks and sweeper, Landry found herself in a defensive position for much of the second half, even stopping one shot that found its way past goalkeeper Austyn Carolin.

She, too, had to be helped off the field after taking a stick to the forehead on a scramble in front of the cage. Worse, the same play that knocked Landry down also resulted in Central’s game-winning goal.

“They were dropping like flies, it seemed like,” said Kay.

They were dropping, but also popping right back up, another philosophy on which the Saints have prided themselves.

“We fought every inch of the way,” said St. Onge-May. “Every game we’ve played to this point, we’ve fought had and played good, clean games. I think that we did that all the way through today.”