Belfast ousts Mount View on Curry goal

THORNDIKE – Briana Curry couldn’t have been in a better position to lift the Belfast field hockey team into the Eastern Maine Class B final.

Curry’s goal after 60 minutes of regulation, 16 minutes of overtime and almost three full sets of penalty corners was enough to boost the No. 3 Lions past No. 2 Mount View by an official score of 1-0 Saturday afternoon in a semifinal matchup.

“I just had a feeling that Bri Curry was going to score today,” said 35-year Belfast coach Allen Holmes. ” … She was in the right place at the right time and it was fitting that she got it in. We’re really happy.”

Curry made a lot of Lions fans at the Mount View High field happy, too. Three-time defending Class B state champion Belfast, now 9-6-1, will play the winner of Monday’s other semifinal between No. 1 Camden Hills and No. 4 Waterville. That game was postponed from Saturday.

The EM final is scheduled for Wednesday.

“This is such a big deal for us,” Curry said. “We wanted to win this game, especially the seniors knowing that if we had lost it would have been our last game. It was just really important.”

Mount View (11-5) wrapped up its best season in over four years.

“Everyone played awesome today,” said Mount View standout Kristin Masessa, who was one of several players from both teams who played the entire game. “We did what we knew how to do, just play field hockey. We do it all year round.”

It took two 30-minute halves of regulation and two eight-minute periods of 7-on-7 play, but Curry ended it on the 14th combined penalty corner for both teams.

There wasn’t much the Mustangs could do to stop Curry, who was planted at the left post where Danielle Littlefield tipped a pass on a play that started when Claire Banks saved a rebound.

There were chances for both teams earlier in the penalty- corner sessions, but goalies Leann Donovan and Lyndsay Cronin of Belfast and Mount View, respectively, were stellar in making tough saves.

Curry’s goal came on a play the Lions had tried early in the penalty corners. This time, Curry was in her spot at the left post in time for Littlefield to redirect a pass from Banks. Curry’s shot went under the stick of a defender.

Banks was able to gather the ball to start the play after the rebound of a shot by Christine Hill.

“We’d been talking about controlling those rebounds,” Holmes said. “Claire sent it back in, Danielle got a hold of it, tipped it in to Bri, Bri was waiting right where she should have been. She was right there on the post. And finished it, as a senior would.”

The Lions wanted to defend the goal first when it came to penalty corners.

“We wanted to end it right there,” Banks said. “We sort of felt like we had the advantage going second instead of first because we knew that if we had gone first, they would have had an opportunity.”

Under normal circumstances, Banks might not have been in the game at that moment. Minutes earlier she had taken a sharp shot by Hill off the outside of her right ankle. She was still in a lot of pain after the game ended.

Donovan finished with five saves while Cronin stopped all 12 Belfast shots.

After 76 minutes of scoreless field play, it was clear how even the teams were. Belfast won the only regular-season matchup 2-1 in overtime on Sept. 27.

“We just played our game, and knew we couldn’t adjust to them,” Curry said. “We had to make them adjust to us. But I think it was pretty even. We both played hard.”