PORTLAND – What a difference a second half made for the St. Dom’s field hockey team in the Class C state championship.

Rachel Trafton performs well in pressure situations, and her goal with 2:09 remaining rallied Central to a 2-1 win against the previously unbeaten Saints Saturday morning at Fitzpatrick Stadium. It is Central’s second-straight state crown.

The melt down couldn’t have been forecast by the Saints, who had completely dominated the entire first half. The artificial turf led to three breakaways by Mary Lewis, resulting in penalty corners. A goal by co-captain Chelsea St Onge-May 3:14 in to the game stunned Central. The Saints took 10 shots on goal, but, the score came from one of 11 penalty corners.

“I’m just not sure why it (didn’t) happen,” Saints coach Brian Kay said. “It might have been the fear of playing in this setting, but we had chances. We weren’t able to (finish), and they were able to take advantage.”

St. Dom’s (17-1) hadn’t scored more than one goal in their previous two games. The defense was extremely important to the Saints’ cause. Saints fullbacks St Onge-May and Annie Butts, and sweeper Chelsea Fournier, had cleared numerous balls out of the zone. St. Dom’s defense had allowed four goals and recorded 13 shutouts.

The momentum shift was evident early on as Central made adjustments in the second half.

“I moved my midfielders up because there was too much space between them and the forward line,” Central coach Diane Rollins said. “The field was great – it was our third game on turf this season. The girls love the speed.”

On the winning play, St. Dom’s had tried clearing the ball, but Trafton stopped it. She dribbled in two steps and put a shot past Saints goalie Austyn Carolin (eight saves).

“We didn’t want to let it go that long,” Trafton said, referring to the Red Devils’ 2-1 overtime win over Telstar in the 2005 state game. “We had practiced our corner plays all week, and I like those pressure situations.”

Central tied the game on a Beth Dauphinee goal at 16:52.

The Saints’ best opportunity to score occurred when Katie Landry hit the ball forward, and it bounded off a Central stick. Lewis (groin injury) corralled the ball and deked a defender and goalie Kara Voisine. Lewis slid to the right and was clear, but fanned on the shot.

“We didn’t play our best game,” Kay said. “But this is a young team, only four seniors, Landry, St Onge-May, Fournier and (Erika) Vander Werf. We had a good season.”|