NEWPORT – It was only fitting that a remarkable series of events would produce a memorable conclusion.

Junior wing Sabrina Vaillancourt’s 28th goal of the season came on the 15th set of penalty corners as Nokomis High School of Newport won its first Eastern Maine field hockey championship since 1977, 2-1 over Winslow Thursday afternoon in the Class B final.

Top seed Nokomis improved to 14-1-2 and will face 13-3 Western Maine champ York in Saturday’s 2 p.m. state final at Hampden Academy. Third seed Winslow wound up 13-4.

The teams began the game on Tuesday and, with the score tied 1-1 at halftime, heavy rain forced the suspension of the game.

Thursday’s resumption featured a tremendous goaltending duel between Nokomis sophomore Maria Adams and Winslow senior Emma Walters.

Adams finished with eight saves on 13 shots and Walters had seven stops on 13 shots during Thursday’s play that featured the second half, two eight-minute, sudden-death overtimes (with seven players vs. seven players instead of 11 vs. 11) and the 15 sets of penalty corners (six vs. six).

Marissa Shaw took the decisive penalty corner and it wound up on the stick of Alison Berg on the right side, just inside the circle. A Black Raider defender had charged out at her but she was able to retain possession and whack the ball toward the far corner.

“[The corner] was supposed to go to Jordan [McGinnis] at first but it was a slight pass and didn’t make it to her. I ran out so it wouldn’t go past the 25 and I hit it as hard as I could. I was trying to shoot it but it turned into an assist,” said Berg.

The defending team has to clear the ball past the 25-yard line to end the penalty corner. An infraction on the offensive team also ends it.

Vaillancourt got herself free and swept the ball into the short-side corner past Walters, who had no chance.

“There were people marking me but I saw the ball and cut on to it,” said Vaillancourt. “I got it and made sure nothing was going to stop me.”

“It was a nice goal,” said Walters.

Winslow had a chance to force another set of penalty corners but couldn’t get off a shot and Shaw cleared it past the 25-yard line to end it.

There wouldn’t have been a 15th set of penalty corners if Adams hadn’t made a terrific head-first diving save off Mindy Fowler in the 12th set of corners.

Fowler was positioned to Adams’ right.

“I knew I needed to dive and I did it,” said Adams.

“It was an incredible save,” said Fowler.

Winslow, led by the crisp, long hits produced by Lindsay Gordon and Fowler, had the better of play in the second half but Nokomis, paced by the omnipresent Mackenzie Smith, defended effectively.

Nokomis had an edge in play during the two overtimes.

On Tuesday, Vaillancourt converted a McGinnis pass to stake Nokomis to a 1-0 lead but Morgan Stuart equalized by converting a Katie Irwin pass.

“They put up a really good fight. They wanted it just as bad as we did,” said Nokomis’ Smith.

“We had our chances. We played our hardest. It just didn’t turn out the way we would have liked it to,” said Winslow’s Gordon.

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