WINDHAM – They say saving a penalty kick is one of the most difficult things to do in sports.

Fortunately for the Windham girls’ soccer team, Kate Kneeland made it look pretty easy Tuesday night.

The goalkeeper stopped three Cheverus shots in penalty kicks to lift the top-ranked Eagles (14-0-1) past ninth-ranked Stags 2-1 in a Western Class A girls quarterfinal, winning 3-2 in penalties after a pulse-pounding 110 minutes of soccer failed to produce a winner. With the win, the Eagles set up a semifinal showdown with fourth-seeded Cape Elizabeth Friday night at 6 p.m. in Windham.

Kneeland had taken a knock with just 30 seconds remaining in the second overtime and struggled to stagger to her feet, but recovered in time to play the part of playoff hero.

“It was a little difficult, but I just thought to myself to keep calm and take deep breaths and it helped me out a lot,” Kneeland said. “It’s very nerve-wracking because one little slip up can be the game and you just don’t know what’s going to happen. It was difficult to adjust to it but I knew what I was getting into so I just tried to remember what I’ve been taught.”

After Cheverus’ Darby Rawcliffe and Windham’s Jenna Soucy opened the penalty kick session with successful scores, Kneeland made her first stop, diving to her right to deny Abigail Goodrich. Cheverus keeper Mikayla Mayberry returned the favor with a stop of Nicole Kennedy, and the Stags’ Abby Maker and the Eagles’ Jordan Sargent both scored to make it 2-2.

That’s when Kneeland really stepped up, again going to her right to save Victoria Nappi’s shot. Lauren Shoemaker then beat Mayberry to give Windham the lead 3-2, and Kneeland finished it with a stop of Danielle Kane’s effort that was right down the middle, setting off a celebration that was half excitement, and half relief.

“I’m just so ecstatic I don’t even know what to think,” Sargent said. “It was insane. When we went into the second overtime I just couldn’t believe it, and then it went into PKs, I couldn’t believe it came to that.”

The sudden death, penalty-kick pressure isn’t something the Eagles have felt a lot of this season, going into overtime just once and winning all but two of their games by two goals or more. Though her girls came through it and beat a Cheverus squad (10-6) that was only a nine seed because of the extraordinary depth of Class A, coach Deb LeBel knew her team might have caught a small break in the anything-can-happen world of penalty kicks.

“We didn’t all maybe play our best game tonight – I hope maybe they’re saving it,” LeBel said. “I hate coming down to penalty kicks, and I just said to our kids that was a big gift because they had some shots and they could be the ones walking out of here tonight with a win.”

But after dropping at this stage each of the past two years, getting the quarterfinal monkey of their backs in such a dramatic fashion was huge for LeBel’s program, and for a team with intentions, and the talent, to go all the way.

“It’s amazing,” said Jordan Symonds, a senior who knows the playoff heartache the Stags were feeling well. “I don’t even think I can put it into words, it’s incredible.”

While the game ended with the gauntlet of emotions – nail-biting pressure, incredible exhilaration and massive despair, it started in much the opposite way. The first half had gone by with few solid chances for either side, with the Stags getting the best shot of the half when Sadie Lyons just put a header wide of Kneeland’s post 15 minutes in. For the most part the play took place in midfield, with little time and space for anybody possessing the ball.

If the first half was cagey, the second half was explosive and wide open from the opening seconds, when Eagles forward Ciera Berthiuame found some room on the left of Cheverus’s box and put her shot across goal just wide. Two minutes later, Windham forward Melissa Morton looked through before Nappi made a terrific sliding tackle to deny her a shot.

But the Eagles’ ears were now up, and unlike in the first half they were finding space to play in down the Cheverus wings. The pressure paid off 15 minutes into the half when Cassie Symonds won a free kick near midfield. Shoemaker took the kick quickly, catching the Stags defense off-guard, and found Soucy just outside the box, who chipped over the Cheverus defense for an onrushing Jordan Symonds.

In behind the defense, Symonds was taken down pair a pair of Stags and a penalty kick was whistled.

“It was a beautiful chip right over their back line,” Symonds said, “and I had two defenders on me and I just kind of got sandwiched and went down to the ground. And then Jordan Sargent is phenomenal at taking PKs and we knew that’s exactly who to go to, and she stepped up.”

Sargent cooly sent Mayberry the wrong way and placed her shot just under the cross bar to give Windham a 1-0 lead with 25:10 to play. Though a defender by trade, there was no question Sargent would be the one to take the pressure kick.

“The kids always say she’s right on, she never misses,” LeBel said. “She’s so confident that I say, no problem, go over for it.”

While the game had been plenty open before the goal, after it became even more so as the Stags kicked into a higher gear in an attempt to tie it up. And equalize they did just four minutes later when a long ball from Rawcliffe found Lyons a half-step ahead of her mark and in on Kneeland. The Cheverus forward opted for power, whacking a rocket past Kneeland to make it 1-1.

“When I scored my heart was just racing, and then when they scored it just dropped,” Sargent said.

The goal did seem to throw the Eagles into a daze and only further spurred the Stags on, and three minutes after their opening they nearly had a second when Lyons again beat two Windham defenders and fired another rocket from close range, bouncing it squarely off the right post.

Though Sargent had done a great job locking down Maker, who had 26 goals to her name coming in, for most of the game, the speedy Stags striker had a pair of chances with around eight minutes to go, first sending a shot just off the top of the crossbar and then moments later creating some space inside the box before sending a left-footed shot just over the bar as the Eagles continued to live dangerously.

“I was all over my defense, it’s almost like they’re a little bit afraid of them,” LeBel said of Lyons and Maker. “Those are probably two of the best players in the state and they’re tough to mark. I thought our defense played nice against them, but we had big lapses and they had really good opportunities.”

The game moved into overtime and with the game in the balance it was Cheverus who continued to carry the play, with Lyons beating Emily Gilman in a footrace to minutes in and cracking a shot that Kneeland was just able to get her fingertips to and send wide. A minute later it was again Lyons causing problems when Kneeland misjudged a ball into the box, with the Cheverus forward unable to finish from a tight angle. Windham weathered the Cheverus flurry, and midway through into the first 15-minute extra period it was Windham nearly the winner when a Shoemaker shot from long range forced a diving save from Mayberry.

The rest of the first OT passed without incident, as did the first 14:30 of the second extra period as both sides tired and didn’t want to give up the killer mistake. It nearly happened with 30 seconds remaining when a Cheverus long ball into the box was allowed to bounce. Kneeland got her hands to the ball to just keep it out of the net, but was run into by a Cheverus player, laying on the ground for several second before getting back up and making her mark with it all on the line.

Now come the Capers on Friday. While Cape plays in Class A for the playoffs, in the regular season they play an exclusively Class B and C slate, always making them a bit of a mystery come playoff time. But sitting at 14-1-1, and on a 15-game unbeaten run, the Capers will be no easy out, although it couldn’t get much tougher than what Windham went through Tuesday night.

“We’ve never played them, I don’t really know what to expect with Cape,” Symonds said. I haven’t even seen them play or scouted them or anything like that, so it’s definitely going to be a surprise.”

Windham forward Melissa Morton brings the ball upfield early in the second half against Cheverus.
Windham players celebrate after Jordan Sargent scored from the penalty shot for a 1-0 lead against Cheverus 15 minutes into a Western Class A quarterfinal game. The top-seeded Eagles went on to beat the ninth-seeded Stags 2-1, winning 3-2 in penalty kicks.
Windham forward Ciera Berthiaume chases after the ball in the Cheverus half late in the first half.