STANDISH – For the first 39 minutes of their game with Kennebunk Tuesday, the Bonny Eagle field hockey team had nary a chance on net.

But in a tie game, all it takes is one.

Scots forward Leah Carter scored on her team’s first true opportunity on the Rams goal and Bonny Eagle rode out the last 20 minutes for hard-fought 1-0 victory, improving to 3-8-2 on the season. The win clinched a return to the playoffs for Caterina Riitano’s squad, which barely missed out on the postseason last year.

Coming in seeded No. 10 against the No. 11 Rams (4-10) in a league where 11 teams qualify for the playoffs, Riitano said her girls knew this was a big game, and they responded.

“That was a very big win. I didn’t really want to psyche them out, but I told the girls before the game that it was an important game and that we needed everybody to come out and play today,” Riitano said. “We had a long weekend and had three days off, so I was kind of nervous because usually when I give the girls that time off we usually come back in a little sluggish, but I’m thinking that’s what they needed, a rest.

“Obviously it worked because they came out and played really strong today.”

While the Scots would later pick it up, both teams came out of the gates slowly in a first half that saw just two shots on goal, both of them Kennebunk’s. Bonny Eagle generated four penalty corners to the Rams’ three, but neither team could string the passes together to create a gilt-edge opportunity.

The second half started much in the same way with much of the play taking place in the midfield. But that changed at the 9:59 mark, when the Scots made a breakthrough.

The ball was funneled into the Kennebunk box and a scramble ensued in front of net, with a Bonny Eagle shot deflecting off of a Kennebunk stick and then off the pads of goalkeeper Katherine Cotton. Carter was the right place to smack the rebound into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.

“We moved some players around and I think the more intense players came up because they wanted to score,” Riitano said. “Some of them just have the desire to want to get the ball into the net.”

The Scots nearly had a second goal three minutes later when Carter moved the ball into the Rams’ defensive zone and threaded a pass through the defense to put Victoria Cady in on net, but Cotton came out to make a nice pad save to keep the deficit at one.

After that the Rams started to push more players forward in the hopes of getting equalizer, and generated their best chance with seven minutes remaining on a scramble in front of net. Scots keeper Ashlyn Wintle was up to the challenge, making what would be her only save of the half to preserve the lead.

Two minutes later Rosanna Woodruff finally won clean possession from the Rams and went on a darting solo run into the Kennebunk box to clear the pressure.

“That last 15 minutes of the game was when they really stepped it up and you saw their desire in wanting to win just getting down an dirty and doing whatever they can do to get the ball up into our offensive corner,” Riitano said of the defensive effort down the stretch.

The Rams created one last chance with a corner with just 20 seconds remaining, but Scots defender Krystal King won the ball and cleared the ball from the danger zone as the clock hit zero.

“Defensively we did a great job of keeping them in that corner,” Riitano said of her team, which stopped all six of the Rams’ corners. “That’s a really tough corner defensively to try to get it out of, but I think we did a really good job of just keeping them locked in there.”

Though it was just the third win of the year, Bonny Eagle has played every team on their schedule tough this season with the exception of a 7-0 defeat to undefeated Scarborough back in early September, and the Scots have finished the season strong, including a 0-0 draw with 10-2-2 Westbrook on Sept. 27 and a 6-0 drubbing of McAuley on Oct. 1.

Riitano said she likes the direction of her team heading into Saturday’s preliminary round playoff game, which will likely be at 8-6 Gorham, a team the Scots beat 2-1 in their opening game of the season Aug. 30.

“Lately we’ve been kind of up and down playing teams,” she said. “But if we come out playing like we did today and we can finish the rest of the season like this I think we can go pretty far. It’s anyone’s game, and when we were playing Westbrook I think they got that confidence in them that we can keep up with these teams that are higher in the bracket.”

Bonny Eagle forward Leah Carter pushes the ball past and Kennebunk midfielder Meg Cadigan late in the second half. Carter scored the only goal of the game 10 minutes into the second half as the Scots downed the Rams 1-0. (Staff photos by Cameron Dunbar)
Bonny Eagle’s Cassidy Merrill clears the ball out of the defensive box as Kennebunk’s Tiffany Weeks tries to catch up early in the first half. 
Bonny Eagle midfielder Rosanna Woodruff tries to push the ball past Kennebunk midfielder Tiffany Weeks in the first half.
Bonny Eagle’s Jordan Ray and Kennebunk’s Tiffany Weeks contest for the ball inside the Rams’ half in the first half.
Bonny Eagle midfielder Alexis Lambert pushes the ball up the field and tries to pass Kennebunk defender Allison King early in the second half.
Bonny Eagle midfielder Abigail Ward and Kennebunk midfielder Meg Cadigan battle for the ball in the midfield late in the second half.