PARIS — With a little bit of extra hustle and an accurate, blistering shot from just inside the circle, the Mt. Blue Cougars secured for themselves the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Class A playoffs on Monday.

Mikayla Oswald ran down a ball that appeared to be going out of bounds beyond the end line, crossed it to the middle, and two touches later Sarita Crandell fired it into the cage with 3:37 to play in regulation to lift Mt. Blue to a 2-1 win over Oxford Hills in the teams’ final regular-season KVAC field hockey contest.

“It was all hustle, Mikayla Oswald saved that,” Mt. Blue coach Jody Harmon said. “It just shows, you have to give it your 100 percent every time. To save that, then give the pass off to Leah St. Laurent, who then passed it across … It was perfect. It was just teamwork and guts and giving it their all.”

The win secured for the Cougars (11-3-0) the third seed in the playoffs, with Skowhegan and Messalonskee holding down the top two seeds.

Crandell’s goal capped a flurry of chances for Mt. Blue, and caught an otherwise stout Oxford Hills defense off guard.

“We let them come right up the right-hand side, we didn’t step to the ball,” Oxford Hills coach Cindy Goddard said. “They got a nice crossing pass. It was a breakdown on that side defensively to let them come across, and they have a good finisher.”

Victoria Newbill had Mt. Blue’s other goal, with Leah St. Laurent and Oswald collecting assists in the morning contest.

Despite the loss, the Vikings (9-5-0) slid into the No. 5 position in the standings as results from other games in the conference were posted. If that positioning holds (the final Heal Points will be released later this week), the Cougars will host Cony in the quarterfinal round, while Oxford Hills will travel to No. 4 Lawrence.

“Knowing that all the teams have kind of been the same, Mt. Blue, Lawrence, us, all the games have been one-goal games,” Goddard said. “If you have to take a path … it’s not maybe the way you want to end this game, but it’s setting you up for the future.”

The Vikings, celebrating senior day, weathered an early Mt. Blue storm and popped in the game’s first goal with 9:46 to play in the first half. Without the benefit of a penalty corner to that point in the game, Oxford Hills applied pressure and created a net-front scrum, out of which Hayley Wakefield found the ball and deposited it past Mt. Blue keeper Rileigh Blanchet for a 1-0 lead.

The Cougars didn’t waste any time responding. Only 40 seconds later, Newbill finished a pass from Oswald with authority, slamming it past Oxford Hills keeper Shannon Fillebrown to even the score.

“They’re a competitive team, and they responded nicely to that first goal,” Goddard said.

Mt. Blue sweeper Hanna Deon was a big reason why the Vikings remained off the board after that.

“She’s our rock-solid defense,” Harmon said. “She’s been there the entire year. She’s so fluid, she has a great stick, she stays low, keeps her stick low. She’s always been there.”

A back-and-forth second half — with no solid chances for either team — set the stage for Crandell’s heroics. Oswald, at a full sprint, reached a through ball that appeared destined to cross the end line. She turned on one foot and fired the ball back into the circle, where St. Laurent corralled it and sent it toward the center. Crandell picked the low left corner and smacked the ball through two defenders and past Fillebrown for the winner.

“At the beginning of the season, she had an injury to her ankle, and she’s worked so hard to come back,” Harmon said of Crandell. “She’s back, and she was a huge presence on that field.”

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