JAY – When we say Jay High School’s field hockey team had a senior moment, it has nothing to do with random acts of forgetfulness. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The Tigers’ half-dozen upperclassmen harbored painful memories, and yes, just a smidgen of resentment after an overtime loss at Livermore Falls last fall. After watching the Andies force overtime with two late goals Monday afternoon, Jay had no desire to give away another game — on its own field, no less — to those friends and neighbors from across the Androscoggin.

“They remembered that, and they wouldn’t let it happen again,” said Jay coach Jane DiPompo. “They don’t want to go out on a down note. They want to go out on top, or at least put us in a position to do that.”

Gina Nemi’s goal with 6:48 remaining in the first overtime will do wonders as a building block toward that goal. Jay jolted Livermore Falls from the ranks of the Mountain Valley Conference unbeaten, 4-3, pushing itself above the .500 threshold and making a down payment toward a Western Class C Heal Point windfall in the process.

Shayna Meserve scored two goals and assisted Nemi’s game-winner. Normally in position to pull the trigger on Jay’s penalty corners, Meserve found herself pushed to the far left side of the scoring area with Jay’s initial bonus opportunity in the extra period.

But Meserve’s reputation was established, and her centering pass veered dangerously close to the cage and lured Livermore Falls goaltender Caylee Morris out of the crease.

Nemi latched onto the loose ball and swept it into the vacant cage.

“I saw it sitting there and said, ‘I’ve got to get that. I’ve got to put that in.’ Jay-Livermore Falls, it’s always like this,” Nemi said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”

Fifty minutes, indeed, were no contest. 

Meserve sandwiched her two goals around a strike by Livermore Falls’ Annika Durrell for a 2-1 halftime lead. 

Anne Harvell needed only 19 seconds of the second half, with help from Nemi, to make it a two-goal Tigers advantage.

“Every time there was a timeout or halftime or the end of regulation, they came back strong,” said Livermore Falls coach Julia Parker. “You can’t take anything away from them. They played a great game. Both teams did. I admit when it was 3-1, I said, ‘Well, isn’t this great?’ I wondered what kind of game it was going to be. But our girls dug deep.”

Livermore Falls’ strength finally countered Jay’s quickness and brought the Andies back from the brink.

Megan Therrien scored with 10:25 remaining, cashing in a long hit from the right side. Kathryn Ventrella redirected another quick free hit into the cage to knot the issue less than three minutes later.

Three of the Andies’ four shots on goal in the contest found the back of the cage. Under much greater duress at the other end, Morris made 16 saves.

“We felt after losing 2-0 to Telstar that we needed to play a game like this against another one of the top teams,” DiPompo said. “We were ready for that (comeback). We knew it was going to be that kind of game.”