Akerley goal gives West 1-0 victory over East

GARDINER – With more than 17 minutes left in the second half of a 0-0 game, Cony’s Mary Beth Coughlin was heading down the field’s right side with the ball on her stick.

The senior East All-Star had received a long drive from the top of her defensive circle and dribbled 50 yeards until she made it into the circle.

Faced with a rushing Western defender, she pushed the ball ahead, caught up and tried a spinning reverse-stick shot past goalie Theresa Ernest of Gorham.

“I just tried a back spin on the other side (of Ernest) and I was going to try to dribble around and catch the goalie back on her feet on her weak side but I saw the defenseman,” she explained. “So I thought, `maybe if I try really hard, I can backhand it in.’ ”

But to no avail as that was the closest the East came in a 1-0 loss to the West at Friday night’s third annual East-West All-Star Field Hockey Game at Hoch Field before a crowd of 230 people.

A fund-raiser for the Ronald McDonald Houses of Maine, the game between the senior all-stars raised more than $1,300 for the Bangor home. The Bangor facility receives the proceeds by virtue of the game being held at an Eastern Maine site.

The West capitalized on their second penalty corner of the half with 10:10 left.

South Portland’s Melinda Gillespie pushed the ball into play to Katie Lachapelle of Lewiston, who stood at the top of the circle. She quickly pushed the ball right to South Portland’s Debbie Akerley whose shot found its way through three defenders and past East goalie Dawn Novy of Winslow, and into the goal’s left corner.

“We had enough of them to practice,” said West coach Carole Merrifield, of South Portland, of the team’s previous seven corner attempts. “It took us a half before we got comfortable with each other.”

The East also finished with eight penalty corners while goalies Stacey Smith of Belfast and Novy finished with a combined nine saves on 11 shots.

The West got standup goalkeeping from Ernest, who turned in seven saves on seven East shots.

“Sometimes breakaways materialize and sometimes they don’t,” said Skowhegan’s Paula Doughty, the East’s head coach.

The East entered the game with eight right wings and no halfbacks, the result of the 1994 season’s senior All-State selections.

Compounding the East’s problem was the West’s depth due to six East team members not showing for the game. The West had 23 players and the East 18.

The West now takes a 1-0-2 lead in the series sponsored by the Maine Field Hockey Association.