John Bapst slips past Nokomis Scofield scores winner in 4th round of corners

NEWPORT – The moon had already risen over Nokomis High School when members of six members the John Bapst field hockey team trotted down to the goal area for yet another penalty corner in Tuesday’s Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal.

By the time the Crusaders left the field in jubilation, the moon had started to shine a bit.

Darkness threatened at the end, but John Bapst’s Marci Scofield put the game away just in time – two-thirds of the way through the fourth round of penalty corners – when she scored on an Erika Getchell pass to lift No. 5 John Bapst of Bangor to a 2-1 victory over the No. 4 Warriors.

The score is recorded as 2-1 as the teams were tied 1-1 at the end of regulation and overtime.

The 12-2-1 Crusaders, who lost in the second round of penalty corners in a quarterfinal last year, move to Saturday’s semifinal. They will face No. 1 Belfast, a 2-0 winner over No. 8 Camden Hills.

“[Senior sweeper] Meghan Higgins came over to me and said, ‘This is just like last year, but this year we’re going to win,”‘ Bapst coach Gina Schuck said. “They just had that feeling.”

Nokomis finishes its season at 9-5-1.

It took more than 22 penalty corners – each team gets three chances per round plus both squads earned extra penalty corners during their chances – after two, eight-minute overtime periods of seven-on-seven field play and a scoreless second half of regulation.

Nokomis had better chances and more shots in the defense-heavy game and extra periods, but Getchell and Scofield connected first.

“I think we knew we’d get it in eventually,” Scofield said. “We had to stay strong on defense.”

After several unsuccessful corners, Schuck changed the Crusaders’ setup, putting forward Ashley Freeman at the top of the circle in order to increase scoring opportunities.

It worked during the second set of the fourth round of corners. Freeman got the ball and passed it to Getchell, who tapped it to Scofield on the right side. Scofield shot the ball past Nokomis goalie Kirsten Gould (two saves in field play).

If Scofield’s goal gave Bapst the win, goalie Meredith Atkinson (nine saves) kept the Crusaders in the game by saving two penalty strokes during the corners.

“The trick is that [the shooters] look into the corner they’re [aiming for], so I was already there for the second one,” Atkinson said. “The first one was really lucky. … The defense was awesome.”

Nokomis standout Michelle Barden had several breakaway chances late in regulation but the Warriors were unable to convert. Nokomis had an 12-6 edge in shots during field play.

“We had a lot of chances but we just couldn’t finish,” Barden said.

Nokomis scored first as Kellye Palmer put in a Dana Jo Gardner pass with 11:37 left in the first half. Bapst tied it about three minutes later when Ali Dunn scored on a scramble.