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PORTLAND — Posing for pictures after a semifinal win over Traip Academy on Wednesday, the Maranacook/Winthrop girls lacrosse team chanted, “NYA, NYA, NYA.”

The Black Bears were letting everyone know they were ready to face North Yarmouth Academy in the Class C championship game.

“We wanted a hard game, we wanted a game that we had to push ourselves, especially, again, for our seniors it being the last game,” Maranacook/Winthrop senior Mya St. Pierre said. “And then really just to show all the underclassmen how to work and how to put yourselves through a hard game like that.”

It was evident from the first whistle that Maranacook/Winthrop was indeed ready for the Panthers. The top-seeded Black Bears (17-0) cruised to a 13-3 win, earning their second straight title.

“I am just over the moon right now,” said Maranacook/Winthrop’s Alice Ferran, “It’s crazy. Especially being a senior, this is my last ever game and ending off on such an amazing win is so nice, and it just really shows how all our hard work this year has paid off.”

Ferran, who is committed to play lacrosse at the University of Southern Maine, notched her 100th career goal to open the fourth quarter. 

“(Ferran) came to me as kind of a soccer player,” Maranacook/Winthrop coach Zach Stewart said. “She’s an incredible soccer player. And for her to commit to USM to play lacrosse and for her to find the love for the team that we had, that’s pretty special. I’m pretty pumped.”

Third-seeded NYA was within striking distance before Ferran’s goal, down 7-3 against a Black Bears team that had outscored its opponents 41-4 in its first two playoff games. Ferran started a six-goal flurry that put the game away.

In the semifinals, the Panthers rallied from four-goals down in the final four minutes to force overtime and beat Wells, 7-6.

“We said it at the beginning, we knew what happened with Wells, and we were not taking our foot off the gas until the last whistle,” Stewart said. “And that’s kind of how we play anyways. We play until the last whistle, respect the game. And that really worked out for us.”

Maranacook/Winthrop scored 29 seconds into the game and led 4-0 at the end of the first quarter. Cooper Davis got two of her five goals in the first quarter.

The Panthers (13-4) scored twice in the second quarter and once in the third.

“We’ve had a really great season,” NYA coach Molly Stokes said. “We lost 11 people and we’ve rebuilt again, and we’re going to lose the same amount and rebuild again. It’s kind of what we do. So we always seem to peak at a good time, and this is a really awesome group and I’m going to miss them a lot. So I told them to celebrate it and kind of just remember it as a whole.”

Ava Wilkinson, Gwen Wilkinson and Cody Strawbridge scored for the Panthers.

St. Pierre finished with three goal and freshman Ingrid Stewart added two for the Black Bears.  Sophomore goalie Willow Woodford made seven saves. 

“From the beginning of the season, we knew we could do it,” Davis said. “We had been talking about states, ‘we’re going there, we’re going there.’ And for it to be NYA with a game in the regular season only beating them by one, and then beating them by 10 in states, it felt amazing.”