YARMOUTH — Speed? Advantage Lisbon.

Long hits? Advantage Lisbon.

Time of possession and timely goalie saves? The Greyhounds had that covered, too.

But the knowledge and experience gained during extended runs through the playoffs and winning state titles? North Yarmouth Academy has that in spades.

In the third round of penalty corners, led by one of only two seniors on the roster and a player who has been in every pressure situation you can think of save for donning the pads, the Panthers pulled off another important playoff victory. Katherine Millett tipped home a blast from Jen Brown on their team’s third try during sudden-death penalty corners as No. 2 NYA edged No. 3 Lisbon 1-0 in their Western Class C semifinal matchup on Saturday, sending the Panthers to the regional final again as they seek a third consecutive trip to the state final.

“They were a great team, and they’re a grass team, so we know they have the skill to move the ball fast and hard,” Millett said of the Greyhounds. “That’s an advantage for them, not just for us, playing on turf.”

As for the play that put the Panthers over the top? Millet chalked up the ability for the young squad to convert on the game-ending penalty corner to plenty of practice.

“Last year, we practiced 7-on-7 a lot, that’s what we did every day,” Millett said. “But this year, we practiced our corners religiously. A lot of corners we do in games, we don’t do half as many as we do in practice, so Bailey (Clock) and all of the others have gotten really good at being able to bring it out and set them up.”

The Panthers also won last year’s Class C state title in penalty corners.

After both teams attempted and failed on their first two penalty corner attempts Saturday, NYA, which chose to shoot first in the coin toss, finally solved the Lisbon defense. After a defensive infraction reset the corner, the ball skipped to the top of the circle. Clock batted the ball down and sent it to Brown, who fired a laser at Lisbon keeper Devon Brewer. Millett snuck her stick in front of Brewer’s pads and tipped the ball into the cage.

“I don’t even know what happened,” Millett said. “The corner that we did last, actually, was a corner they worked on when I wasn’t at practice. We practiced it yesterday again, and anything new is good to pull out. It’s fresh and new to the other team, too.”

The onus was then on Lisbon to match the Panthers. But, as had been the case all day, the Greyhounds possessed the ball well but failed to get a quality chance on NYA keeper Elizabeth Coughlin. Their final attempt drifted well wide and over the end line as the rest of NYA’s squad rushed the field in celebration.

“Their defense was solid in the middle, and we’re not used to seeing that in front of us, that wall of white — or whatever color the other team is,” Lisbon coach Julie Wescott said. “I think we kind of hesitated a little bit and were looking to pass more because of the surface. Unfortunately we missed some balls and let some roll out and just didn’t execute offensively. We’re usually good at that.”

The Greyhounds (12-3-1) weathered an early barrage from the Panthers (12-4-0), and then launched a counterattack of their own. The teams jostled for position through most of the first half, and neither squad did mush with their early penalty corners.

The second half followed with more of the same. Lisbon finally put its first shot on the cage with 7:48 to play in regulation.

“We have a fast field for being on grass, and our defense knows how to control the ball pretty well, too,” Wescott said. “I wasn’t worried about that. They did really well having their sticks ready at all times, and it felt like constantly back-and-forth, back-and-forth. Unfortunately we couldn’t get around them enough to get more shots on the cage.

“Our defense is one of the youngest part of our team,” Millett said. “We have so many freshmen who play far back, so to have them step up, it’s very intimidating against a team that had some skilled ball-handlers coming down on them. For them to step up and clear the ball so well was awesome.”

In the first overtime period of 7-on-7, NYA nearly ended it with a 2-on-0 break, but Brewer kicked Millett’s shot wide with a quick left pad.

NYA will face Sacopee Valley in the Western Class C championship at Thornton Academy. The winner of that game will square off in Saturday’s state championship against the winner of the Winthrop-Dexter contest in the Eastern C final.

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