Deveau’s goal wins game

By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
    The No. 6 Houlton Lady Shires came back in the second half of last Friday night’s preliminary game against visiting George Stevens Academy, advancing to the Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinals on Oct. 25 in Orono.
    Yesterday, the Lady Shires were scheduled to travel to No. 3  Orono, and if they win, the Houlton girls will move onto the semifinals on Friday, meeting the winner of No. 2 Fort Kent and No. 10 Piscataquis.
    “Orono will likely be the best team we have faced this year,” said Houlton coach Tim Tweedie. “They have been in the Eastern Maine championship the last three seasons, and their only losses this season are to Class B powerhouses Hermon and Old Town.”
    With that said, Tweedie believes in his team.
Houlton Pioneer Times photograph/Gloria Austin
SURROUNDED — Houlton’s Alana Pratt finds herself the center of attention among the George Stevens Academy defenders during last Friday night’s game in Houlton. The Lady Shires won  2-1 to advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinal.
    “We believe we can play with them,” he said. “We’ve only allowed 13 goals all season, so we expect to be in every game. It may require us to play our best game of the season, but I believe in this group of kids. It should be fun.”
    In last Friday’s game in Houlton, the Lady Shires snapped a 1-1 tie late in the game to overtake No. 11 George Stevens Academy, 2-1.
    Shannon Larking opened the scoring for GSA when she grounded the ball to the right side of Houlton goalie Marina Cameron on a Charlotte Reiter assist. Cameron’s view was blocked on the coverage in front of the net, as the ball rolled in uncontested.
    During the first half, Houlton players were hesitant and were beaten to the ball in many incidences. But, Tweedie knew his players just needed to settle into the game.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Gloria Austin
DRIBBLES — Houlton’s Abby Deveau dribbles the ball down the field as teammate Tori Hanson yells encouragement.
    “This was the first home playoff game for most of the girls,” he said. “They were nervous and trying a little too hard in the first half.”
    And, of course, with intermittent rain showers, the field was slick.
    “The field conditions weren’t ideal,” Tweedie said. “Both teams seemed to struggle at times with their footing.”
    Since the coaches were at the mercy of the weather, they could only instill confidence into their players at halftime.
    “We tried our best to simply relax the team,” Tweedie said. “I didn’t see it necessary to make a lot of adjustments because if we could just play to our maximum potential, we would be fine.”
    Despite outshooting GSA in the first half, the Eagles had snuck one in for the lead.
    “I told them not to panic,” Tweedie said. “While we hadn’t played well, I didn’t want them putting so much pressure on themselves.”
    During the 10-minute halftime, Tweedie had his players think back to all of their games, trips and practices since the start of the season in  mid-June.
    “I had some of the kids share their favorite experiences and memories of the past four months,” he said. “I wanted them to remember that in the end, soccer is just a game, so they should be having fun. I wanted them to remember all of our successful moments and realize that 40 minutes was a lot of time to correct our first half play.”
    Just 1:33 into the second half, Alana Pratt tucked the ball into the net to knot the game off Mikaelah Tracy’s setup.
    “It was just a case of Alana being relentless,” said Tweedie. “Again, it was sloppy out there and when a GSA defender made a bad play on the ball, playing it across the middle, Alana was right where she was supposed to be.”
    Each team had scoring chances, with GSA’s coming when Richelle Kane broke down the field and was heading toward the goal alone. That was, until Mikala Folsom raced to intercede. Folsom tracked down the ball and booted it out-of-bounds saving what might have been a certain one-on-one situation.
Houlton Pioneer Times photograph/Gloria Austin
GIVES CHASE — Houlton’s Emily Mooers chases down the ball on a play at the goal during last Friday night’s game in Houlton. The Lady Shires won and advanced to yesterday’s Class C quarterfinal.
    Houlton’s Amanda Fogarty had a couple of shots on goal that lifted just over the crossbar and Emily Mooers slipped by GSA’s defense and caught the goalie down, but the ball was tapped too far away from her rolling away on the play. While the Lady Shires were frustrated many times down the field, they stayed focused.
    “Early in the game, we noticed that GSA was tightly marking Amanda and Alana up front,” said Tweedie. “To counter that, we wanted to add a third player [to the front line] to help force defenders to choose who they were going to mark and who they were going to play straight up.”
    Tweedie moved Abby Deveau, who had been playing primarily as a defender, to the striker position.
    “She made the best of her first career opportunity to play up front,” said Tweedie.
    With 6:37 left in the game, Deveau broke through the GSA defense, forcing GSA’s goalie to come out to make a play. But, Deveau alertly booted the ball past the sliding GSA goalie. Deveau dribbled the ball all the way into an empty net for the game-winner.
    Cameron made two saves on four shots for 10-4-1 Houlton, while GSA’s Hannah Billings stopped six of 17 shots for 6-9 Eagles.