NEWCASTLE, Maine — One would expect a matchup between the No. 4 and No. 5 teams to be closely contested and that was certainly the case on Wednesday in the Class B North girls’ quarterfinal pitting Caribou against Medomak Valley.
The match was played on the artificial turf field at Lincoln Academy as the Medomak Valley field was unplayable due to wet conditions.
The game went through 80 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime without a winner being decided, so it came down to the penalty kick tiebreaker and the host Panthers prevailed in the second round to advance to the semifinals.
Each team was successful on three kicks in the first round, while Medomak Valley made two in the second compared to one by the Vikings to end the game.
Caribou scored its goal in the first half courtesy of Edie Shea, who connected on a shot from 30 yards out off a Willow Whitten assist. Medomak Valley scored off a penalty kick seven minutes into the second half to even the score. The Panthers had six other corner kicks in the second half but the Vikings defense held strong to force overtime.
Both teams had scoring chances in the overtimes. Both Lexi Rodriguez and Joycelyn Hartin broke through the defense to get off shots on goal for Caribou with less than two minutes remaining but Rodriguez’s shot was just wide and Hartin’s was saved by Medomak goalkeeper Kayla Donlin.
“All in all, I am very happy with the way our season played out,” said Mark Shea, the Vikings’ first-year coach. “Having to retool after heavy graduation losses last year, we set a goal of getting to the regional semifinal and came up a bit short but we took it as far as we could.
“When you have to get to that length to determine a winner, you know you’ve got two evenly matched teams, but unfortunately that also means that one team is the loser,” he added. “But knowing how hard my team played all season, and especially in this game, and knowing it came down to one shot going in or not going in was the difference, we can live with that. We gave it everything we had and there is absolutely no shame in that.”
Caribou finished with a record of 8-5-3.
