Goalie helps BU tip Maine Terriers win America East

BOSTON – University of Maine women’s soccer coach Scott Atherley couldn’t help but beam like a father at the birth of his first child.

Although his team had just been beaten in sudden death penalty kicks by Boston University in the America East final, he said he “couldn’t be any prouder” of his team’s performance against a Terrier team that will be making its third NCAA Tournament appearance in four years.

Maine was making its first-ever appearance in the America East Tournament, knocking off Maryland-Baltimore County 3-1 and Hartford (4-2 in penalty kicks) to reach the final.

“I couldn’t have asked for this team to play any better or play any harder than they did today,” said Atherley whose team had 13 shots at goal to BU’s 12 over 110 scoreless minutes which included two 10-minute sudden death overtimes.

It took three great saves by America East goalie of the Year Jessica Clinton to rob the Bears of an opportunity to make their first NCAA tourney appearance.

The first one came with 27 minutes left in regulation when she mishit a goal kick and it glanced off a teammate to Maine’s Katie Crawford, who broke in alone on her.

Clinton rushed out at Crawford, set herself and dove to her right to snare Crawford’s rising 14-yarder.

“It was my goal kick that set it up so I knew I had to save it,” said senior Clinton. “I came out to try to cut down her angle and I just reacted to her shot.”

“She did a good job coming out,” said Crawford. “I had the corner picked to the right. I wound up hitting it with the outside of my foot. I wanted to hit it with the instep.”

Clinton’s second superb stop came on a perfectly placed 35-yard tester by Heather Hathorn from the goalie’s left. The ball was sailing just under the crossbar when the alert Clinton snared it with both hands.

“She didn’t have much of an angle but that was a great shot,” said Clinton.

Crawford also had a cross that struck the goal’s crossbar in the second half.

Finally, Maine rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the first penalty-kick segment to tie it 2-2 and force sudden death penalty kicks.

After freshman striker Lauren Erwin tucked a low shot just inside the post to Maine goalie Tanya Adorno’s left to open the sudden-death segment, Clinton fully extended herself to her right to get her hand on Annie Hamel’s PK to end it.

“I put it where I wanted to. She made the save,” said Hamel, who wept as BU celebrated the win.

“The Maine girls looked away from the spot where they were going to shoot,” said Clinton.

Clinton had saved penalty kicks from Hathorn and Crawford and Katie Hodge’s attempt hit the post during Maine’s first three attempts while Emily Dionne and Melissa Shulman had converted for BU but Adorno had saved Brooke Bingham’s opening attempt.

Adorno kept Maine alive by making saves off Meghann Cook and Brittany McDonald and the Bears forced sudden death penalty kicks when Linda Consolante and Jen Buckley converted.

BU had the better of the possession during the match but Maine had the superior scoring opportunities although they were few and far between for both teams thanks to the work of the backs and midfielders. Both teams pressured the ball tenaciously so players had little time to distribute the ball.

Maine’s back line of Allison Kelly, Consolante and Angela Clark was exceptional as was BU’s four-back alignment featuring America East Defender of the Year McDonald, Susan Marschall, Erica Lee and Emily Dionne.

Hathorn, Hamel and Erin Corey generated some chances for Maine with Schulman and Cook creating a few dangerous opportunities for BU.

Adorno wasn’t forced to make a save but was sharp coming off her line to force shots to go astray while Clinton finished with eight. Hathorn had six of Maine’s 13 shots at goal, including one in the first half that Clinton poked over the crossbar at the last second.

BU had a 7-2 edge in corner kicks.

“It was a very even game,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman. “It was like a pretty good prize fight.”

The two teams tied 1-1 during the regular season.

Since both teams are awarded a tie, top seed BU is now 12-5-5 while third seed Maine finished at 13-3-3.