SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. — Molly Laurent took a Madison Gile feed, spun on a defender and scored the game-winning goal at 4:01 of overtime as No. 2 Mount Abraham outlasted No. 3 Hartford, 2-1, in a taut VPA Division II field hockey semifinal at South Burlington High School on Wednesday night.
The goal stopped a concerted comeback from the Hurricanes (10-4-2), who trailed from late in the first half until Daisy Phelps’ tying goal with 3:54 left in regulation. The Canes’ Kennedy Mullen and Elsie Davis both had potential game-winning bids denied in OT on saves from Mount Abraham goalie Kira Murray (five saves) before Laurent settled the matter.
Hartford netminder Bailey Cameron (six saves) was on her game early. The junior made a solid save on an Abigail Reed bid four minutes in and followed that with a solid stop of a deflected Laurent blast on Mount Abe’s first penalty corner.
The Eagles kept up the pressure, and Cameron kept up with the stops. Mount Abe amassed six corners in the opening 12 minutes and Cameron denied them all with fine saves on MAU’s Carly Rougier and Laurent, aided by a defensive block of a Gile attempt on the final opportunity. The Eagles’ positional dominance led Hartford coach Heather Scudder to call a timeout just 11:54 into the contest.
Mullen, owner of nearly half of Hartford’s 44 goals entering the night, nearly opened the scoring single-handedly in the 18th minute. Taking a through pass near midfield, Mullen galloped 40 yards with two defenders trailing, slipping the ball through a third’s legs before Murray came out to block Mullen’s shot.
The Eagles finally broke through on their seventh corner at 27:14. Gile accepted the insert pass up top and dribbled to the right for a shot that Hartford’s defense popped into the air. Txuxa Konczal got her stick up to knock the ball softly over Cameron’s head and into the net.
A livelier Hartford attacked the second half.
The Canes’ Greer McCarty nearly locked the contest early. Davis’ lead pass freed McCarty behind the Mount Abe defense on a second-minute breakaway, but the charging Murray forced McCarty to roll her shot just wide of the right post.
Hartford had another chance three minutes later. With Mullen sitting out the last seconds of a two-minute green card foul, defender Maliya Sinclair stepped into a high-circle feed and blasted a shot that caught an Eagle stick before trickling wide right.
The Canes appeared to be out of luck when Mullen drew a penalty stroke at 48:27, a Mount Abe player pinning the ball to the turf in a goalmouth scramble. Mullen whipped a wrist shot over Murray and off the crossbar. The ball ricocheted to the goal line, and both officials agreed it never crossed the line.
But Phelps changed Hartford from fearful to hopeful with 3:54 to play. Following Davis’ feed on the Canes’ seventh corner of the half, Phelps jammed home a point-blank shot to send the teams to extra time.
Hartford graduates seven: McCarty, Sinclair, Mullen, Phelps, Tayler Simmons, Emi Harlow and Emma Urso.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.