SACO — The Thornton Academy girls soccer team suffered a 2-1 defeat in double overtime at the hands of the Portland Bulldogs on Wednesday night at Hill Stadium.
“Credit to Portland. They really came out tough and they outplayed us. They were winning the 50-50 balls. They were doing all the little things that we weren’t doing,” said Thornton head coach Natalie Sharland.
The Bulldogs (5-4-1) opened the scoring in the first half.
With 4:21 left in the first half, Toni Stevenson sent a free kick towards the goal and Grace Stacey finished by heading the ball it into the back of the goal. That would be the only goal of the first half.
With 17:33 left in regulation, the Trojans (4-6) would look to tie the game. Thornton Academy received a penalty kick after the ball hit the hand of a Portland player in the box. Alyanna Beaudoin kicked the ball into the right corner of the net out of the reach of Portland goalie Lainey Legere.
“We were pressing their defense and it hit her hand. Good things happen when you press and we ended up getting a (penalty kick) out of it. We were trying everything we could to get a goal and it just wasn’t working so for a (penalty kick) to be granted it definitely boosted our spirits,” said Sharland.
The Trojans and Bulldogs would battle for the next 17 minutes, but neither would find the back of the net.
With five minutes left in regulation, Kylie Bedard was on a breakaway run. She fired the ball at the Bulldogs’ net but Legere made the save.
“We’ve had some really good scoring opportunities tonight we just didn’t finish and when you don’t capitalize on your opportunities, it’s going to come back and get you and it did,” said Sharland.
After a scoreless first overtime period, Stacey made the gamewinning shot for the Bulldogs late in the second extra frame. At the 2:21 mark, she rammed the ball into the back of the net to send Portland home with the win.
“We take things one game at a time and we lost it. We move on and our focus is Deering and it’s just goes in the lost column and that’s it,” said Sharland.
Thornton goalie Grace Mears stopped eight shots. Portland goalie Lainey Legere made seven saves in the win.
Thornton will host Deering on Friday.
— Sports Writer Sienna Barstow can be reached at sbarstow@journaltribune.com or at 780-9018. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.