Third time’s the charm for Curves

The Curves for Women soccer team had three chances to put Gillons’ away in the final of the Borderland women’s league last Thursday evening here.
And they needed every one.
Curves reclaimed the league title with a 3-2 win in a shootout over Gillons’ after regulation time and sudden death overtime settled nothing.
“I guess it’s always nice to have a tight game to end the season,” said winning captain Mandy Wilson on a game that saw her team give up the tying goal with under a minute left in regulation and then having the would-be game-winner called back in overtime before finally shutting the door in the second round of the shootout.
Curves’ keeper Amy Saunders made big stops on Sarah Vanderplaats, Marina Boileau, and Andrea Boileau during the first round of the shootout, but was beaten by Carling Barton and Laureen Cousineau.
On the other side, Rebecca Cornell and Jamie Leduc were the only two to score for Curves against Jessica Wilson, leaving the game tied at 2-2 after each team had sent five shooters to the line.
In the second round, Tracy Petsnick scored for Curves but Sarah Barton missed the net on Gillons’ bid to tie.
Saunders, a back-up keeper on the Muskie girls’ soccer team this season, impressed her veteran team.
“She played great for us,” said Wilson. “She showed a lot of poise . . . our whole team was playing shorthanded the entire game.”
Cousineau—Gillons’ captain and the league’s top scorer—had tied the game at 2-2 off a scramble in the dying moments of regulation time. It capped off a frantic final two minutes in which Gillons’ was awarded two consecutive corner kicks as well as hit the goal post courtesy of Vanderplaats.
Cornell had snapped a 1-1 halftime tie by slipping through two defenders on a pass from Wilson to break in alone and beat Sarah Hebert to give her team a 2-1 lead with 20 minutes to go.
Wilson said her team controlled play until those dying seconds.
“Actually, the referees told us there was 10 seconds to go [when Cousineau scored],” recalled Wilson. “Ten seconds. It was that close.”
Wilson and Carling Barton had traded goals in the first half.
Beside Lindsey Roy’s breakaway goal that was called offside by referee Sone Sonnasinh, there were few chances in the sudden death overtime.
The title was the second in three years for Curves, formerly known as the Merchants. And the loss was the second-straight in the final for Gillons’, who had blanked Tagg’s 6-0 in the semi-finals earlier last week.
In the other semi-final, Curves scored three unanswered goals in the second half to beat defending champion MEC 6-4.
MEC went on to beat Tagg’s 6-2 in the consolation final.