Blodgett, Lawrence ready for Cony EM finals set tonight in Bangor

It’s going to take a lot more than nine stitches, some mild swelling, and a slight headache to keep Lawrence High School’s Cindy Blodgett out of Friday night’s Eastern Maine Class A girls championship game.

That was the word from Fairfield on Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours after Blodgett was sent to the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor after suffering a bad cut over her right eye during Thursday night’s 74-43 semifinal victory over Nokomis of Newport.

The three-time defending state Class A championship Bulldogs, seeded second, will face top-seeded Cony High of Augusta on Saturday at 7:07 p.m. for the big-school title. The girls game will be followed by the boys championship contest between Medomak Valley of Waldoboro and the winner of the Lawrence-Presque Isle game.

Blodgett, the 5-foot-9 senior guard for Coach Bruce Cooper’s 19-1 team, received the cut when she knocked heads with Nokomis’ Kelly Bowman while chasing down a loose ball near halfcourt during the third quarter of the semifinal.

“I knew it was a cut because I’ve cut my head before and they bleed so much,” Blodgett said. “I just wanted the trainer to fix me up and get me back out there as quickly as possible.”

Blodgett, the state’s all-time leading career scorer, returned to Thursday’s game and scored 13 points in five minutes of action en route to a Class A tournament-high 39 points for the game.

Blodgett’s injury was bandaged up on Thursday, but the 5-foot-9 senior wasn’t sure if there would be anything covering it on Saturday.

“We haven’t really discussed that yet,” Blodgett said. “I don’t expect it will affect me, though.”

Lost in the wake of Blodgett’s injury was Saturday night’s fourth meeting between the Bulldogs and the Rams.

The two teams split regular-season contests and Cony won the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship game, an unofficial exhibition game, by two points.

Blodgett says there is no extra pressure in facing Cony once again.

“There’s really nothing for me to say,” Blodgett said. “It’s a game for the Eastern Maine championship. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. You’ve still got to go out and win.”

The Cony players are equally ready in facing Lawrence for a fourth time.

“This is the game everybody has been waiting for,” said Angela Beaudoin, a 5-9 Cony senior. “Everybody has been talking about it. We just hope we can go out there and get the job done.”

“It’s always exciting playing them,” added Cony’s sophomore point guard Amy Vachon. “This place is going to be packed. I think we’ll be ready for play.”

Cony will be ready. And so will Cindy Blodgett.