Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – The wind was blowing Saturday during the Presque Isle girls’ Eastern Maine Class B semifinal against Ellsworth, but that came as no surprise to Wildcat coach Ralph Michaud.
“Only in one of our nine games the wind wasn’t a factor, so we’re used to it,” he said.
Presque Isle scored two goals against the wind and two more with it in its favor for a 4-2 victory. The top-ranked Lady ’Cats improved to 15-1 overall and earned a berth in the finals.
Despite playing against that aforementioned wind in the first half, the ’Cats made an early statement by scoring on freshman Kayla Richards’ header off a Sarah Porter pass six minutes in and making it 2-0 nine minutes later when junior Jenna Stephenson ripped a shot inside the left post.
“We knew we had to come out with intensity, with the wind or without,” Porter said. “We also knew we could play and win with the wind in our faces because we play such good defense.”
The Presque Isle defense was solid for the most part, but did make a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes that led to Ellsworth goals. A miskick led to an Emily Lyons blast with 9:40 to play before intermission, cutting PI’s lead to 2-1.
In the second half, Porter scored less than five minutes in as her blast from the top of the 18-yard line deflected off the hands of goalie Angie Tucker, off the bottom of the crossbar and across the goal line to give Presque Isle a 3-1 advantage.
“I called for the layoff and just used my strength and powered it toward the goal,” Porter said. “If you hit it hard enough, anything can happen and it was half lucky and half playing the wind.”
The goal was set up by some nice passing by teammates Chelsea Nickerson and Kayla Richards earlier in the sequence.
“We have scored a lot of goals with a lot of pretty passes,” Porter said. “We make it tough on the opponents because it is tough to mark that many people.”
Just two minutes after Porter’s tally, Ellsworth drew to within a goal once again as Taylor Trombley came through. However, Kayla Legassie of the Wildcats scored off another header, with Nickerson collecting the assist, at the 27:25 mark to close out the scoring and wrap up the win.
“The offense picked us up today,” said Michaud. “We had four different scorers, and that makes it tough on any defense.”
Kelsey Park had three saves on five shots in goal for PI, while Tucker saved 10 of 16 shots for the No. 4 Eagles, which ended its season with a 12-3-2 record.
The win puts Presque Isle into the Eastern Maine finals. The Lady Wildcats are still looking for their first-ever regional championship and hope to get it against a Winslow team that knocked PI out in the finals in 2004 and was seeded second in this year’s post-season.
“Only the coaches remain from that game,” Michaud said.
Game time is 5:15 p.m. this afternoon at the Johnson Athletic Complex.
In last Tuesday’s quarterfinal at home against No. 8 John Bapst, Legassie scored twice and Stephenson had the other goal in a 3-0 win.
Porter, Richards and Nickerson all picked up assists and Park was credited with her ninth shutout of the season by making three saves on as many shots.
Contributed photo/Dave Allen Graphics
PRESQUE ISLE’S Kayla Legassie attempts to gather in a cross, while Ellsworth defenders Lauren Peer (23) and Gabrielle Huebner are also in on the play during Saturday’s match. PI won, 4-2.
