SACO — Mountain Valley finally figured out a way to beat York keeper Amanda Kasbohm.

They just didn’t count on having to beat defender Caroline Hird, also.

With her team holding a one-goal lead, Hird retreated behind her goaltender with heavy Mountain valley pressure following a penalty corner concentrated to Kasbohm’s left. The ball shot out of the scrum and eluded the Wildcats’ backtop. Hird cleared the offering off the goal line and she and the rest of the York defense held on against a furious Falcons flurry in the final minutes of the game, lifting the top-seeded Wildcats to a 1-0 victory over the No. 7 Falcons in the Western Class B field hockey final at Dr. Paul S. Hill Jr. Stadium at Thornton Academy on Tuesday.

“I’m post, which takes the girl on the outside looking for a rebound,” Hird said. “Sometimes it slips by. My job is to get it if I can. I was just happy to be able to get a stick on it. I was surprised it got through; that rarely happens.”

“I think she just ended up there, based on what happened with the ball,” York coach Barb Marois said. “It was bouncing all over the place, and she just kind of naturally went back to that spot to cover behind Amanda.”

York, which has been to six of the past seven Class B state title games, brought with it a wealth of playoff and regional final experience. The Falcons? Not so much.

“Mountain Valley had never made it into a semifinal, never mind a final,” Mountain Valley coach Melissa Forbes said. “We were just, ‘Let’s focus on one game at a time and see how far we can go.'”

Early in the contest, the Falcons’ inexperience showed.

“We had a hard time with the lines early,” Forbes said. “We took a couple of free hits inside our own circle because the girls were a bit confused about the different colors of the lines. After a while, we settled down and made sure they knew where they were on the field.”

By that point, though, the Wildcats had scored the lone goal of the contest, and did so after one of a handful of flurries in front of all-star senior keeper Emily Gallant.

“We were getting some decent shots on her, and she was stopping them,” York sophomore forward Taylor Simpson said. “I was surprised to be so open.”

Simpson found herself at the left side of the cage and the ball found its way through the scrum in front and onto her stick. She slapped at the ball and it rattled the cage for a 1-0 York advantage with 14:47 to play in the opening half.

“She gets herself in the right place at the right time,” Marois said. “She knows what to do with the ball when she gets it.”

The Falcons immediately called for a timeout, and it appeared to work. Mountain Valley held pressure on York for the better part of the final 15 minutes of that opening half, but couldn’t solve Kasbohm. On the other end, Gallant was lunging and diving, wowing the York bench at times with her ability to stop what appeared to be sure goals.

“She likes turf. It comes at her flat,” Forbes said. “She’s had a great streak here and she’s kept us in a lot of games, like she did here today. She’s quick as a whip.”

“She was very good,” Marois said. “I wasn’t worried because we had the one goal in our back pocket even if they did score. I always like our chances in overtime. But she made a couple of really nice saves that looked like they could have gone in.”

York began the second half much like it had the first, with some solid pressure, forcing Gallant into action again. This time, the Falcons’ pressure and rebound came earlier.

“We had an overtime win in the last game, and we’ve had some really close calls, but we really just needed to think about defense,” Hird said.

Mountain Valley earned its seventh and final corner in the waning seconds of play, giving the Falcons one untimed chance to score. York sniffed out the Falcons’ play and cleared the ball quickly, ensuring another trip to the state final.

“It was scary because, against Greely (in the Western B semifinal round), they scored right at the end and we had to go into overtime,” Simpson said. “I definitely just wanted to keep it out of overtime.”

“They’re just tough-minded kids,” Marois said. “We weren’t always playing our best hockey, but we were able to get the ball in the net, and then our defense just battled. We have kind of a new corps of defenders, either new to the position or new to the team, or new to a starting position, and they have really, really grown.”

While York celebrated like winning is old hat, the Falcons mimicked the Wildcats’ celebration with their own plaque. Despite the loss, they were all smiles.

“They’re happy, you know, it was 1-0, it was York, who’s been here many times before,” Forbes said. “But they’re happy. They accomplished a lot.”

Copy the Story Link