Fogarty boosts Tigers to title Dexter, Winslow, Skowhegan pick up state championships

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GORHAM – Never underestimate the power of the rally monkey.

With her team down 1-0 at halftime Saturday in the Class C field hockey state championship game, Dexter coach Margaret Veazie was desperate for the Tigers to believe they could come back.

Desperate times demand desperate measures and Veazie drew on the World Series champions Anaheim Angels’ good luck charm to provide her team with a spark. As her team huddled before the start of the second half, Veazie waved a stuffed monkey over the huddle.

Magic happened. Brittany Veazie and Meagan Fogarty scored goals in the second half and goalie Cindy Koscielny made a save on a penalty stroke late in the game as the Tigers won their third straight state title and their 45th game in a row with a 2-1 win over Hall-Dale of Hallowell.

The win gave Eastern Maine teams a clean sweep in the state games. Earlier in the day Skowhegan had an easy time of it, defeating Edward Little of Auburn 3-0 for the Class A title and Winslow edged Greely of Cumberland Center 1-0 in the Class B championship game.

Dexter 2, Hall-Dale 1

Dexter, 18-0, found itself in an unusual position at halftime. Only once this season had the Tigers trailed in a game and never at halftime.

But Saturday was different. On a bitterly cold and blustery day, the Tigers dominated the game with a number of near misses. Hall-Dale’s first shot of the game didn’t come until there was 8:14 remaining in the first half. But it was a good one. The shot by Lisa Doiron found its way into the goal and gave the Bulldogs the lead. It left the Tigers stunned and frustrated.

“I said in the huddle if Anaheim can do it, we can do it,” Margaret Veazie said. “I asked if anybody had a monkey and Courtney did.”

Courtney, is Courtney McCormick. She worked a slick give-and-go with Fogarty with 12:05 left in the game to the Tigers the lead.

“Courtney McCormick, we’ve had this little pass back and forth this year and it has worked. So, I just shot it and it beat the goalie,” Fogarty said.

Brittany Veazie came up with the tying goal and it came quickly, just 1:28 into the second half when she redirected Keriann Patterson’s shot into the goal.

But the 13-5 Bulldogs didn’t lie down after going behind. Their persistence paid off with 3:17 left when they were awarded a penalty stroke. Again, a Dexter player came up big. This time it was Koscielny, who stopped Eliza Matthews’ shot.

“I was so nervous. This was like the most nervous game I’ve been through this season,” the goalie said.

Koscielny made three saves on six Hall-Dale shots while Bulldogs’ goalie Christen Lachapelle turned away nine of 18 shots.

“We knew we needed to score first. That’s what we want to do and we did what we wanted to do. The second half, we just, we couldn’t pull it off,” an emotional Hall-Dale coach Ellen Vickers said.

Winslow 1, Greely 0

Winslow kept its fans on pins and needles throughout the Class B title game. Greely clearly dominated the first half with the Black Raiders managing just two shots.

But 16-1-1 Winslow managed to turn up the pressure in the second half in winning its third straight title and fifth in six years.

The breakthrough came with 25:19 remaining in the game when the Black Raiders were awarded a penalty stroke after a Rangers defender handled the ball.

Beth LaFountain calmly shot the ball into the top left corner of the cage.

“We practice strokes every day,” LaFountain said. “We expected them to be a very good team. We came out fired up [in the second half].”

Greely coach Robin Thayer said her player reacted to the ball the way she had been taught.

“I’ve told them that all season. If the ball’s going in the goal cage do whatever it takes to knock it out and at least take a stroke. You might as well have a chance,” Thayer said.

The Black Raiders came close to a second goal with just under eight minutes remaining when LaFountain’s shot from the top of the circle slapped off the left post.

Cierra Byrne made six saves on 13 Rangers shots, while Kristen Walker made two saves on seven shots for 14-2-3 Greely.

“We played a lot of defense today. My backs played outstanding,” Winslow coach Lori Loftus said.

Skowhegan 3, Edward Little 0

Skowhegan, 17-0-1, cruised to its second straight title in a game the Indians totally dominated.

Ramie Merrill scored twice for the Indians, both goals coming from the same spot at the top of the circle.

Her first came just under six minutes into the match. It came four minutes after she had struck the left post with a shot from the same spot.

“That’s were [coach] Paula Doughty] likes me to be,” the senior said.

The Indians flooded the Edward Little defensive end and kept pressure on Eddies’ goalie Jenna Nicolas, who was under constant fire. Nicolas made five saves on 22 shots.

“We went after them. We’ve been working all year and we’ve been waiting for this. We were ready,” Merrill said.

The pressure resulted in a goal by Amy McDaniel with 14:50 remaining in the first half and after a sustained Skowhegan attack that had Nicolas scrambling.

At the other end of the field, Indians goalie Margaux Shute had little to do. The 12-3-2 Eddies managed just one first-half shot and their next shot didn’t come until 9:42 was left in the game. Shute finished with two saves on five shots.

“She didn’t have a lot to do, but she handled the shots she had to,” Doughty said.

“I didn’t think it was our best game. But I didn’t think it was our worst game. But under the circumstances – it was a really cold day, the field was icy – we did fine,” Doughty added.