THETFORD — After surrendering a two-goal lead late in the second half, the Thetford Academy girls soccer team needed someone to right the ship. Enter junior Ruth Brooks, whose long shot in the final minutes lifted the Panthers to a 4-3 win over Bellows Falls at home on Wednesday.
With 7:29 left in regulation in a contest knotted at three goals apiece, Brooks gathered the ball just outside the top right corner of the 18-yard box and sent a bomb of a shot past the Terriers’ goalkeeper, giving Thetford (4-8-0) the lead and eventually the win.
“Oh, it was excellent,” Panthers head coach Kevin Brooker said of his junior’s game-winner.
“I don’t know if it was a cross or a shot, but it was a goal, right, so there’s no such thing as an ugly goal. So, however it was, it was great. I mean, the girls’ (have) been working really hard all season, so things like that — it was good. It was nice that it was senior night, too.”
In addition to Brooks’ score, senior Elizabeth Brown, senior Lilian Miller and junior Zo Hayward all found the back of the net.
“It was definitely a fun game. … I mean, we play a tough schedule because we play in the Capital League, so we play a lot of bigger teams. We don’t get many games like this, so this one was really good for them,” Brooker said.
“Bellows Falls didn’t give up, and it forced our kids to not give up, and we need this kind of stuff right before the playoffs.”
The Panthers faced a tall task on Wednesday, battling against a fellow VPA Division III squad that entered the contest at 8-4-0 and on a six-game win streak. However, as both teams battled in the first half, Thetford drew first blood.
With under 17 minutes remaining in the half, Brooks intercepted a Bellows Falls goal kick and found Brown, who made her way into the 18-yard box, made a defender miss and buried a shot to give her squad the lead.
Trailing, the Terriers ramped up the offense, much of it coming from junior Gracie Patterson receiving long through balls.
One such play led to a nasty collision that halted play between Thetford junior keeper Mallory Hodges and senior Leah Crossett as the duo tried to prevent a goal. Crossett was injured during the sequence and did not return.
“Leah got wiped out, and that’s going to hurt us in the playoffs,” Brooker said. “She’s a solid player to the point where you kind of don’t pay attention to her too much because you know she’s going to do her job.”
About 10 minutes after the collision, Thetford extended its lead on a goal from Miller, set up by an incredible through ball from sophomore Lacey Parkman that she sent from near midfield.
The Panthers went into the break with a 2-0 lead, but the Terriers started making some noise in the final 40 minutes.
Just under eight minutes into the second half, Bellows Falls got on the board. Senior Abigail Nystrom buried a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box, set up by a Thetford hand ball.
The Terriers had a couple of nice chances for an equalizer a few minutes after their first goal, both on free kicks by Nystrom, but came up empty. One went just over the net, and another deflected off a Thetford player and nearly went in.
As the second-half clock ticked down, the Panthers got their lead back to two with around 18 minutes remaining on a goal from Hayward, which was set in motion by a throw deep into the box by Miller.
That lead wouldn’t last very long, though. Just over a minute after Thetford’s goal, Patterson drew a penalty kick, which Nystrom finished, and less than five minutes later the former drew another, setting up another finish from the latter, making it 3-3 with 11:37 left.
Despite giving up their lead, the Panthers buckled down, and Brooks’ long ball gave Thetford the win.
Heading into the postseason, Thetford’s head coach didn’t want to jinx his team or set expectations.
“The schedule we have gives us a lower seed, right, so we’re kind of towards the middle, so it gives us a couple of games that we can be competitive in,” Brooker said.
“You know, you get a little luck — I mean, the soccer gods smiled on us tonight on the ball. I don’t know how they got it out; I don’t know how they (Bellows Falls) missed. I was like, alright, so hopefully didn’t burn all of our love to the soccer gods, but — I’m not really sure. I think we’ll do fine.”
Thetford visits Peoples Academy on Saturday at 11 a.m.
