AUBURN – It’s amazing what can happen when you put the ball on net.

Livermore Falls field hockey coach Julia Parker chastised her players for missing too many scoring opportunities on errant shots, channeling the great Wayne Gretzky, who once opined that “you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

On a day more suited for black ice and slapshots than manicured fields and long hits, Parker’s Andies weathered the biting wind and chilling cold, and hit the net once more than St. Dom’s, escaping with a 4-3 win over the Saints in the first round of penalty corners.

On the Andies’ (9-5-1) first attempt, the offense bobbled the ball a bit before it rolled toward Missi O’Connor.

“Chelsie Morris missed it, and it was supposed to go to Kathryn Lake,” O’Connor said. “(Lake) had already been warned, so she couldn’t hit it her hardest, so the ball just kind of swooped in next to me, and I reverse hit it. I didn’t think it was going in at first.”

The Saints’ (13-2) bid for an equalizer ended when officials whistled one of their forwards for an offensive foul, sending Livermore Falls to the Western Class C semifinal against No. 3 North Yarmouth Academy, which dispatched Lisbon 6-0 Wednesday.

With game reserves and spectators lining the field, covered in multi-colored blankets and bright gloves and ski caps, the St. Dom’s offense warmed up quickly, thanks to All-State sniper Mary Lewis.

Lewis broke free for a pair of goals in the first 16 minutes of the game, giving the home team a 2-0 cushion.

“We didn’t mark up against her,” Parker said. “That’s what happened on those first two.”

“We really wanted that third goal,” St. Dom’s coach Brian Kay said. “To come back from 3-0 is really hard, and at that point I would have made some defensive adjustments.”

Kay never got that chance.

Hannah Therrien had some of her own magic to weave, smacking one ball past Saints keeper Kelsey Murphy late in the first half, and another early in the second to even things up.

“Usually I miss seven or eight (shots) a game,” Therrien said. “It was do or die today.”

Lewis earned the hat trick with 19 minutes to play in the second half on a give-and-go with Colleen Rideout, but the Andies’ Annika Durrell capped a mad scramble in front with her lone goal of the afternoon to knot things back up at 3-3, sending the game into overtime.

Through two overtime periods with the teams playing 7-on-7, St. Dom’s outshot Livermore Falls 5-0 and had four penalty corners to the Andies’ none, but couldn’t solve keeper Caylee Morris.

“She wasn’t even feeling well today,” Parker said of her keeper. “She played a great game, this was an exciting win for us.”