Converted throw-in key to Eagles’ win

BLUE HILL – George Stevens Academy senior midfielder Steve Ensworth said the Eagles have been trying to score off throw-ins all season long but hadn’t been able to do so.

Until Tuesday.

Ensworth converted a throw-in by senior back Lucas Marks with 2:06 remaining as the second-seeded Eagles erased a 1-0 halftime deficit to nip No. 3 Washington Academy of East Machias 2-1 in their Eastern Maine Class C semifinal.

GSA, now 14-1-1, will host No. 4 Madawaska, 13-3, in Saturday’s EM final. Madawaska upset top-ranked and previously undefeated Dexter 2-1.

“This is the first time it worked. Good timing,” said Ensworth, who was positioned at the far post and directed Marks’ throw-in from the left sideline past WA goalie Josiah Jackson.

“It came in high and it just skipped off Nicky Saunders’ head, I think,” said Ensworth, whose goal was his eighth of the year. “As it fell, I just got my left foot on it and pushed it in through by the goalie. That side of the net was open. They were looking for any deflections coming at them and we were so close, they had no chance to react.”

Marks said he “tried to put it far post as hard as I could.”

“Luckily, Steven’s been our go-to man when it comes to cleaning up garbage around the net,” said Marks.

Jackson said Ensworth “got behind us in the one-on-one and was so close, there wasn’t any angle I could cut off or anything.”

It was a blustery day and the team having the wind at its back had the better of the play.

There was little to choose between the teams, although WA had a modest edge in territorial play.

GSA managed 20 shots at goal to WA’s 19. Rashad Frazier made 11 saves for GSA, and Jackson had six stops.

Both goalies turned in superb performances in the challenging wind.

Todd Jun scored the only first-half goal as Joey Hunter’s long wind-aided ball from the midfield stripe was tipped off the underside of the cross bar by the retreating Frazier and the unmarked Jun volleyed the rebound into the net.

Frazier preserved the one-goal deficit 40 seconds from the intermission with a top-quality stop as he came off his line and stood his ground to get his hands on Milos Gautier’s well-struck shot from the right side of the penalty area.

The Raiders used their quickness and tenacity to win a healthy portion of the 50-50 balls and had a great chance to expand the lead early in the second half only to squander a three-on-one when the ball possessor stepped on the ball.

Sophomore midfielder Elias Springer tied it with 21:25 remaining off a goalmouth scramble.

“The ball was bouncing across the goalmouth and I short-hopped the ball with the outside of my foot and got it under [Jackson]. It was kind of lucky,” said Springer, who was 10 yards out and scored his second goal of the season.

“There wasn’t much we could do about that one,” said Jackson.

The goal came less than a minute after Jackson had made two remarkable point-blank saves off Ryan Kurtz and Ensworth during a wild scramble.

The Eagles knew they dodged a bullet.

“[WA] did really well moving the ball around. They were real fast and put a lot of pressure on our defense,” said GSA’s Kurtz. “I was really impressed with them. We didn’t expect such a rough game today.”

“We played well. We were just unlucky at the end,” said Jackson.

WA coach Chris Gardner told his team at halftime “it was going to take at least one more goal to win. George Stevens is too good of a squad not to find the back of the net.”

“We’ve been a great team when it comes to finding [scoring] opportunities all year. It was just whether or not we capitalized on them,” added Gardner.