Mount View, Van Buren win state crowns> Ludden’s goal tips Yarmouth

HALLOWELL – The plot twists were riveting.

State championship games always contain a sense of drama, but Mount View High School of Thorndike’s 3-2 four-overtime win over Yarmouth on a rainy, wind-swept field possessed memorable drama.

Junior midfielder Michelle Ludden was the heroine as it was her 17-yard shot that glanced off the hand of stopper-turned-goalie Stacey Mahan and decided the game with 2:36 left in the final OT.

It gave 16-2 Mount View its first state schoolgirl soccer title. Yarmouth finished 14-3-1.

Ludden’s goal was the first one scored against the wind.

Mahan was filling in for the injured Crystal Clarke (knee) and Jessica Reynolds (swelling under the eye), who both got hurt in collisions with Mount View’s Andrea Cochrane.

Mahan had played brilliantly at stopper and was the main reason her team made it to overtime. The Mustangs rallied for two second-half goals with the wind and had put constant pressure on the Clippers.

There was nothing scientific about the game-winner. There was a scramble and the ball came to Ludden just inside the penalty area to the right of Mahan.

“I just kicked it,” said the excited and exhausted Ludden, whose goal was her third of the season and third consecutive game-winner.

The head-high ball curled to Mahan’s right but she was in position to make the save.

“I didn’t get both hands behind it. It was windy, the ball was slippery, and it went in off my right hand,” said Mahan. “But I should have had it.”

It was senior stopper Heather VonOesen who forced the overtime by converting a penalty kick with 11:38 reamining. It was the first one she had attempted this season.

“I was surprised he (Coach Ian Wilson) had me take it. I had confidence. I had to do it for my team and my coach,” said VonOesen, whose rising shot went through the fingertips of the diving Clarke.

Wilson said VonOesen “responds well to pressure.”

The goal the Mustangs desperately needed to jump-start their attack was scored by Sarah Cole just 1:20 into the second half. That cut the deficit to 2-1.

Cole was sent in alone on goalie Clarke by Ludden, who chipped a pass to her.

“I kept my poise and put it in the far corner,” said Cole.

Yarmouth had built a 2-0 with the wind in the first half when Hilary Maynes converted a solo break-in off a Jaclyn Ouillette header and Mahan’s curling left-footed free kick was headed home by Lee Silkman after it had sailed over the head of MV goalie Angel Brown.

MV outshot Yarmouth 18-0 after the Clippers had a 9-1 edge in the first half.

“We knew we could come back. We never give up,” said Cole.

“We’ve outscored teams by about a 3-to-1 ratio in the second half,” said Wilson, who credited the second-half domination to the fact his team plays a physical brand of soccer which creates tentativeness on behalf of their opponents and that his team is much more offensive-minded in the second half.

He explained that his girls use the first half to establish their defensive assignments and schemes.

Mount View outshot Yarmouth 25-17 in a game featuring good, aggressive soccer involving intense challenges for every 50-50 ball.

Brown had six saves and Yarmouth’s goalies combined for six stops. Clarke got hurt in the first overtime and Reynolds was shaken up in the fourth OT.