Belfast shuts out Old Town Lions advance to Saturday semifinal against Winslow

BELFAST – Surrounded by his Belfast field hockey team Tuesday, coach Allen Holmes did what he has been doing after every playoff win for 30 years – he dropped to the ground and gave them 50 pushups.

It was a debt the coach happily paid to his team as the Lions got two goals from Jen Jackson and another from Sarah Skinner in a 3-0 win over Old Town in their Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal.

“He did 50 today. I think he’ll 75 the next game and 100 after that,” Belfast senior Morgan Crandall said.

It was Belfast’s 10th win in a row and the Lions now stand at 11-3-1. The Lions will travel to Winslow Saturday for a semifinal with the Black Raiders, a 2-1 winner over Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield.

Jackson and Skinner teamed to make life miserable for the Indians, who close out their season at 9-5-1.

The pair worked the left wing of the field and put together a beautiful give-and-go play to open the scoring with just over seven minutes gone in the match. It began with Jackson in control of the ball approximately five yards from the left post.

“I passed it back to her and she shot. I saw it going in so I just let it go,” said Jackson, who was in position to redirect the shot.

Jackson also benefited from runs out of the midfield by Crandall and Erin Brown who cleared defenders and made long passes into the attack area.

The second goal came as a result of a Crandall run that ended in a low hard shot that Old Town goalie Emelie Richard was screened on. The ball trickled through Richard’s pads and Jackson stepped in and slapped the rebound into the goal.

Old Town managed to produce nine shots that Belfast goalies Tash Scott and Amanda Littlefield stopped. But Old Town’s offense came primarily on three attacking occasions, while Belfast dominated play the remainder of the game.

“Their passing game is just incredible,” Old Town senior Liz Saucier said. “They have such good possession we just couldn’t touch them with that. I would say they had pretty good control of that game.”

Richards stopped 10 of 17 shots for the Indians.

As for Holmes, he hopes to be able to continue the pushup tradition a bit longer.

“We’ve been doing that for a long time. At tournament time, every [win] I do 50. I hope to do another couple of hundred,” the coach said.