BANGOR – In the minutes after Saturday’s Class A Northeast division girls quarterfinal game, Holly MacKenzie undid the Velcro straps of a knee brace on her left leg and produced a wallet-sized picture of her sister, Kelly.

“I carried it with me all game,” said MacKenzie, the starting sweeper for the Messalonskee girls soccer team. “When Hana Pelletier came down the right flank I looked up and said Kel, help me out, and not 20 seconds later the ball was in the net. I was like, Kel, be with me and help me out. And she was there for me, the whole 80 minutes.”

The No. 6 Eagles of Oakland almost didn’t play against No. 3 Bangor at the high school field here. Kelly MacKenzie, 20, died Friday night, and the girls had second thoughts about making the trip. They let MacKenzie make the ultimate decision.

MacKenzie, a senior, knew what she wanted to do.

“I figured the best thing to do was to continue on,” MacKenzie said. “This is how she would have wanted things. I just figured, this is what I love to do, and I need to be around the people that I love.”

And so the Eagles got a late goal from Chelsea Thibeault to earn a 2-1 win over the Rams, and earned a berth in the regional semifinals against No. 2 Waterville Tuesday.

Ryan Jeffrey scored the eventual game-winner and added an assist as the No. 3 Bangor boys rolled to a 4-0 victory over No. 6 Skowhegan in their regional quarterfinal.

The Rams will face No. 2 Presque Isle in a regional semifinal Tuesday.

The Messalonskee girls, now 5-5-5, had MacKenzie’s sister on their minds as they tried to hold off Bangor, which had taken a 1-0 lead in the first half on a Laura Clarke goal.

Lauren Viles tied it up for Messalonskee in the second half.

Thibeault’s goal came with just 1:22 left in the game, as the Eagles were pushing on offense.

“Hana was going to shoot it but she crossed it and I was in the right spot,” Thibeault said.

The Rams were sharp in the first half, winning balls and outshooting Messalonskee 12-2. The Eagles outshot Bangor 6-5 in the second half.

“It’s my job to run the defense and we just didn’t do well,” said sweeper Ashley Tower. “We were marking up as tight as we needed to but we were giving them one step. It was the 50-50 balls we weren’t going to.”

Clarke gave Bangor (9-5-1) the lead with 13:23 left in the first half when she put in a well-placed clearing kick from Tower.

Messalonskee goalie Megan Goodrow made nine saves while Bangor’s Katherine Miller had five stops.

In the boys game, the Rams and Indians fought through an intense and physical – but scoreless – first half until Jeffrey’s winner at the 24:10 mark of the second. The play started when Josh York stole the ball and crossed from the right wing to Jeffrey.

“Josh had nice hustle, and I was coming across and the goalie came out, so I just slid it in near-post,” Jeffrey said.

Almost 10 minutes later, Matt Oliver passed the ball to Jeffrey, who sent in a cross from the left wing that Alex Chaiken headed into the goal. Chaiken added one more goal on a penalty kick.

Andy Mahoney rounded out the scoring with a goal at the 5:52 mark.

Bangor goalie Payson Nichols kept the Rams in the game with a number of tough saves. He was key during one stretch in the second half in which the Indians got off three straight corner kicks but were unable to capitalize on them.

“They were coming at me but our defense kept them under control, and we did a phenomenal job of marking up on their free kicks and the corners,” said Nichols, who made seven saves on 13 shots. Backup ‘keeper Josh Heath, who filled in late in the game, faced one Skowhegan shot.

“I think it was a good playoff-intensity game and that was where we wanted to be, up here, in a close game [at halftime],” Skowhegan coach Peter Vigue said. “We just couldn’t keep with it for the whole game. We’ve had trouble with that, putting 80 minutes together.”

Indians goalie Tom Hopkins made seven saves on 19 shots.