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DIXFIELD — Dirigo senior goalkeeper Madison Knowles rarely lets a ball past her into the net. On Tuesday, she made 11 saves to earn her seventh shutout in the Cougars’ 1-0 Buckfield in a matchup of 8-person South girls soccer contenders. 

“It’s so bizarre, I started soccer sophomore year, and it’s just crazy that the place I’m at having only played for three years,” Knowles said. “It’s just like, it’s just mind blowing and I’m glad that coach (Chris) Araujo can trust me in the goal. I’m so proud of me, myself and the team, and for where we’re at.”

The Cougars (9-0) continued their undefeated start to the season thanks to junior Xandra Libby’s goal with 22.4 seconds remaining in the first half. Sophia Nino started the play with a corner kick towards the Buckfield goal. After commotion in front of the net, the ball rebounded off the shin guard of Dirigo’s Abby Luczynski and into the path of Libby.

“When Soph kicked the ball, I ended up crashing the goal, and then I realized I was offsides for a second,” Libby said. “I came up and Abby, one of our defenders, ended up hitting it through one of the defense’s legs, right to me, and I just tapped it into the corner post, right by the post. I did not think it was going in, I thought the goalie had it.”

The goal was a long time coming for Libby, who was making her first varsity start Tuesday. She said that in a recent game she missed on a breakaway chance to score within the first 30 seconds after subbing in. She and Araujo both said that Libby eventually scoring a goal was inevitable. 

All it took was one

The Bucks (8-2) outshot Dirigo 11-4, with seven of those shots on goal in the first half. Buckfield also took five corner kicks to the Cougars’ two. First-year coach Justin Davis said the Bucks’ inability to score came down to shot placement. 

“We worked a lot in practice the last couple of days; we’ve got to place the ball into the corners, got to push it low, got to push it hard,” Davis said. “We did a lot of preparation, in terms of passing to the shot and getting good shots off that, but this goalie did really well.”

Along with Knowles’ strong play in net, Buckfield had a couple of shots hit off the top crossbar. Dirigo has allowed only two goals this season.

Davis said that Tuesday’s game showed the slim the margin between winning and losing when two strong teams face off.

“One, one goal, one mistake, one small thing, and that’s all it takes,” Davis said. “You can have a perfect game, but have one mistake and you go down, and you have to fight back. Unfortunately, that’s what happened to us today, we just couldn’t clear the ball, and they countered it and scored it. I give (Dirigo) props, because they were ready for it.”

Statistical leaders

• Dirigo (9-0): Xandra Libby (goal), Madison Knowles (11 saves on 11 shots). 

• Buckfield (8-2): Addison Smith (three saves). 

They said it 

• “The slide tackle (save), I was just like, ‘I’m just going to go for it feet first.’ I was just like, ‘Whatever I think is going to work,’ because her feet were right there and I was like, ‘I don’t want to put myself, my face in danger, so I just went right for it. She was right there, but I was right in front of it, just grabbed a hold of that ball. That’s never happened to me before.” — Dirigo goalie Madison Knowles

• “Two years ago, nobody would have ever thought we would be where we are right now, we would just be out on the field, ready to play, ready to have fun. Now, we’re here to … win and just work hard on the field. I’m very glad of where our team is at this year.” — Knowles

• “It’s a natural thing. You can’t always teach speed. You can’t always teach athleticism or the understanding of where to be when you play soccer all the time. But you can help it. As a coach, I can stand here and give them those tips and help them try to get there and find their best potential, but I’m very blessed, because this crew has had a lot of people put into them to get them to where they’re at.” — Buckfield coach Justin Davis