CUMBERLAND — Bizarre bounces settle their share of field hockey playoff games, anyhow.

Blend in two days of rain, piggybacked by untimely beams of blinding sunshine, and you’ve cooked up the ideal conditions for a daffy deflection.

Leavitt fell victim to the setting and the sod Thursday afternoon. Julia Maine’s right-place, right-time goal less than two minutes in the second half gave No. 4 Greely a 1-0 victory over No. 5 Leavitt in the Western Classs B quarterfinals.

Greely (11-4) gained an open look at the cage when a Leavitt defender slipped and fell while shadowing Eliza Porter at about the 15-yard mark.

Porter popped a quick shot at Leavitt goalkeeper Taylor Eells, who made one of the stellar saves that were her trademark all season and throughout the first half.

Maine alertly chased the play and got her stick on the rebound with enough momentum to elude Eells and put the Rangers on top.

“I just touched it and it went right past her pads,” Maine said. “I didn’t think it was going to go in.”

More than two inches of rain fell between noon Wednesday and the lunch hour Thursday, forcing postponement once and nearly a second time.

Footing was fickle for both teams. The grass in front of both goal cages turned to virtual quicksand early.

“It was horrible. Where I was standing in the first half was just like a mud pile,” Greely goalie Emma Seymour said. “Then the sun came out for the second half, and I was glad I had the better end.”

Eells (eight saves) ended up facing west when those long, lost rays shone most brightly, a luck-of-the-draw distinction that probably didn’t help her cause on the game-winning goal.

“I think on a good field we would have beaten them,” Leavitt coach Wanda Ward-MacLean said. “It was slippery. There were a lot of little bounces.”

The last one didn’t go Leavitt’s way, either. Casey Fichter rang the far post on a scorching right-to-left bid with 1:50 remaining in regulation.

Leavitt (10-4-1) also had five penalty corners in the second half, plus a handful of resounding free hits by Kayla Royer in the offensive end.

Seymour made seven stops. Kaley Sawyer and Paige Fuller were disruptive forces for the Greely defense.

“I thought we might need another goal,” Maine said. “There was one non-goal (a Leavitt shot from outside the circle) where I felt like we were just standing around. But I knew we could bring it back.”

Sophomore sweeper Annie Castonguay alertly broke up two Greely scoring opportunities on Eells’ behalf in the early going.

Eells, one of nine Leavitt seniors, twice stymied Greely with back-to-back brushoffs from point-blank range.

“She made some unbelievable saves,” Ward-MacLean said.

Fichter also had a near-miss just before the end of the first half.

Even after finally breaking the ice, Greely worried that it had done so with too much time to spare.

“It was more nerve-wracking when we were up than it was while we were tied,” Seymour said.

Greely eliminated Leavitt 1-0 for the second straight year. Last year’s confrontation was a semifinal verdict in Turner.

The Rangers travel to No. 1 York on Saturday while Leavitt’s road ends. That reality was reinforced when Ward-MacLean walked up individually to her nine seniors and gave each an extended, tear-stained hug.

“This is a tough pill to swalllow,” she said.

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