At Howland Tuesday, the Penobscot Valley girl’s soccer team escaped an intense 110 minutes of scoreless play, and finished off Hodgdon in the first round of penalty kicks 2-0.
The Howlers held possession a high percentage of the game, and had a lot of close scoring opportunities throughout, especially early on. One of the first ones came from a Julia Durost strike from about 18 yards out, in which goalie Maddison Smith stretched out and got her right hand on it to deflect it wide of the net. Moments later, Kaya Loring took a drop back pass just outside the 18, only to have it bounce off the left post. In the same half, Ashlyn St. Cyr collected a ball around the penalty kick line, and shot toward the right corner, but Smith was able to corral it.
The teams remained at a stalemate through the second half as well as two fifteen-minute overtimes, which led to penalty kicks.
PVHS won the coin toss and elected to go second in the round of PK’s. A Hodgdon player stepped up to shoot, and senior goalie Emilee Ireland punched the high shot right over the crossbar. Ali Gilman was the first kicker for the Howlers, and she calmly kicked a rocket into the corner for a 1-0 lead. The second Hawks player struck the ball well, but it carried over the crossbar without a touch. The next two players for Penobscot Valley, as well as the next two players for Hodgdon all shot on frame, but were turned away by the respected goalies. Finally on PVHS’ fourth attempt, senior Rebecca Carson put away her kick in the corner past Smith, to ignite an on-field celebration for the Howlers. Being up 2-0, there was no need to kick the fifth and final shots.
Penobscot Valley registered its 13th shutout of the year with the win, and improved to 14-1 on the season. Ireland stopped 5 of 7 shots that came her way, and will face the winner of the Ashland vs Southern Aroostook game that is slated to be played on Wednesday. Hodgdon keeper Smith saved 16 of 33 shots, who ended the season with a record of 8-6-1.
