ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine women’s soccer team’s 13-game home unbeaten streak was in serious jeopardy on Sunday afternoon as the University of Vermont’s Catamounts had a 2-1 lead with just three minutes remaining.
But the Black Bears stunned the Catamounts with goals just 16 seconds apart by freshman defender Luise Reinwald and sophomore striker Jordane Pinette to earn a 3-2 victory at Mahaney Diamond.
It was a mutual America East opener. UMaine improved to 6-0-3 overall while Vermont fell to 5-3.
UMaine is now 8-0-6 in its last 14 home games dating back to October, 2021.
Sophomore wing Lauren DeGroot’s goal with 13:37 remaining, her second of the game, gave UVM a 2-1 lead.
She had scored the only goal of the first half, but UMaine junior striker Abby Kraemer equalized just 24 seconds into the second half.
Reinwald tied it with 2:36 left with a header off a Kristina Kelly corner.
“They left me alone on every corner. So I said ‘Hit to me.’ [Kelly] did and I said ‘OK, I have to do it,’” said Reinwald, whose header beat UVM goalie Kylee Carafoli to the goalie’s left side.
It was her first collegiate goal.
Sixteen seconds later Pinette raced down the right wing and took a perfect pass in stride from Lara Kirkby before racing past a defender and tucking the ball into the far corner from nine yards out.
“I just kicked the ball. I didn’t know what happened. Everything was so fast,” said Pinette, whose goal was her second of the season.
It is the fourth time this season UMaine has scored in the last eight minutes of a game, earning wins over the University of Rhode Island, Boston University and Vermont and a tie with Holy Cross on an Elle Vermilya goal with just 11 seconds left.
“In our team meeting before the game, we showed our players the six seconds at BU where we scored in the last two minutes [to win 2-1],” said UMaine head coach Scott Atherley. “We showed them the clip of Holy Cross when we scored in the last 10 [seconds].
“And we said we only needed to find five seconds in a game [to score]. That was the mindset,” Atherley added. “We didn’t need to find five minutes, we didn’t need 20 minutes, we just needed to find five seconds. And we found those seconds.”
“We never lost our fight,” said Kelly, a former star of Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport.
UMaine had a decided edge in possession, 54 percent to UVM’s 46.
UMaine had 16 shot attempts and eight on target while UVM had just four with all four going on net.
But the Catamounts defended well and limited UMaine’s high-percentage scoring attempts.
DeGroot scored a gift goal in the first half.
Aubrey Bough floated a long high ball to the top of UMaine’s penalty area, and UMaine defender Myla Schneider and goalie Kira Kutzinski collided.
That left a ball rolling toward the net and all DeGroot had to do was guide it in for her second goal of the season.
Kraemer scored her eighth with a blistering shot from the top of the penalty area over the left arm of Carafoli. Julie Lossius had the assist.
DeGroot broke the tie with a breakaway off a Tessa Weiss pass.
She outraced the UMaine defense, pulled the ball around Kutzinski and slotted it into the empty net.
Kutzinski finished with two saves while Carafoli wound up with five stops.
UMaine had a 9-2 edge in corner kicks.
“It was a good game,” said Vermont coach Kristi Huizenga. “We played well. We’re getting some players back. We haven’t had a healthy squad all season. It was nice to be able to score a couple goals and get a lot of our depth back.”
UMaine will travel for a game at Albany next Sunday while UVM will host Siena on Wednesday for a non-conference contest.
