HERMON, Maine — The Hermon High School girls soccer team was 5-3 at one point this season after entering with a 52-game winning streak against North opponents. A fourth consecutive appearance in a Class B North title game wasn’t assured.
But the fourth-seeded Hawks came on strong at the end of the season and will look to win their fourth straight regional championship next Wednesday after beating ninth seed Presque Isle 6-0 in their B North semifinal at Pottle Field Wednesday night.
It was Hermon’s seventh straight win and extended its unbeaten streak to eight games (7-0-1).
Hermon, now 12-3-1, will face either second seed Medomak Valley of Waldoboro or third seed Ellsworth in Wednesday’s final at Hampden Academy.
Medomak Valley and Ellsworth will play their semifinal on Friday.
Presque Isle, which had upset eighth seed Erskine Academy of South China (2-0) and undefeated top seed Oceanside of Rockland (2-1), wound up 9-8 after having its five-game winning skein snapped.
Sophomore forward Madison Stewart scored three goals, all in the second half, and had an assist, while sophomore midfielder Natalie Tardie had a pair of goals and an assist. Junior midfielder Brooke Gallop had the other goal.
Ellie Williams, Izzy Byram, Tessa Ewer and Sam Grover each had an assist and senior goalie Bella Bowden made eight saves on 14 Wildcat shot attempts.
Presque Isle junior goalie Jayden Harvell stopped 16 of 24 shots and sophomore Kolbie Langley saved the only shot she saw.
“When we just settled and played to feet and made the extra pass, we were much, much better,” said Hermon coach M.J. Ball. “After we scored (our first goal), we had a period where we were just kicking it.
“We talked about it at halftime. Making the extra pass, play a short pass first to get out of pressure and things worked out well,” Ball said.
“We played pretty well,” said Tardie. “There are some things we could have improved on but, overall, we did good.”
The speedy Tardie opened the scoring with her team-leading 25th goal of the season when she took a pass down the left side from Byram and sprinted past a defender.
“I got a pass, and there were two defenders up. So I took the ball, saw Izzy open, and then got a pass back from Izzy and shot it,” said Tardie, whose 14-yard shot slipped through the legs of Harvell.
The teams played on even terms the rest of the half.
Each goalie came up with a number of good saves before Gallop made it 2-0 with 6:06 remaining off a Stewart corner kick. It was her fourth goal of the season.
“I was aiming for a header but I fell over,” explained Gallop. “Tessa got a foot on it, and put it right in my path. When I got back up, I tapped it into the corner.”
Bowden preserved the lead by leaping and getting her hand on Aubrey Ellworth’s long-range shot.
Stewart scored her 19th and 20th goals less than 10 minutes into the second half.
Williams’s looping ball into the penalty area landed at Stewart’s feet, and she fired it neatly past the left hand of Harvell.
She was in the right place at the right time again seven minutes later when a deflected ball found her in front of goal and she converted.
She capped her hat trick when she took a Grover pass and squeezed an eight-yard shot inside the near post.
Tardie capped the scoring with her 26th.
Impressive Presque Isle freshman striker Peyton Boinske rattled a shot off the crossbar late in the game.
“Hermon is so skilled,” said Presque Isle coach Ralph Michaud, who earned his 300th career win this season. “It’s tough. You have to play a perfect game against them.
“Credit to Hermon, they’re a quality team,” added Michaud, who had just three senior starters and started the season 0-4.
“To start 0-4 and get to the semifinals was an incredible job by our team,” he said. “We lost nine seniors off last year’s team. We’re very inexperienced.”
