HAMPDEN — After the Waterville and Hermon high school girls soccer teams played each other in the preseason, they shared a joke.
“We said ha ha, we’ll see you in November,” Waterville coach Mark Serdjenian said.
That friendly offhand remark turned out to be prophetic, but it was Hermon that got the last laugh.
Sydney Gallop’s goal with 8:43 left in overtime lifted the Hawks to the 2-1 win, giving Hermon the Class B North title. Hermon, now 17-0, will face Cape Elizabeth in the Class B state championship game Saturday at Falmouth High School. Waterville ends the season at 15-2.
Gallop entered the game as a 30-goal scorer, but Waterville did a nice job bottling her up for most of the game. Not one person was assigned to mark Gallop, Serdjenian said.
“We played them in preseason and I saw them one other time. We knew what their strength up the middle was,” Serdjenian said. “So we had our center backs focus on that.”
In overtime, Gallup finally broke through, and fired a low shot to the right corner of the net to win the game.
“I was just trying to make space and it was very hard.” Gallop said. “(Waterville keeper Jacie Richard) was kind of in the middle, so I picked a corner.”
Hermon trailed 1-0 at the half, after Waterville scored off a corner kick early in the first half to take the lead. With 27:54 left in the half. Paige St. Pierre sent the corner kick to Sadie Garling, who was positioned in the middle of the box for the perfect header in to the Hermon net.
The Hawks controlled play for most of the first half after Waterville’s goal. Hermon has five corner kicks, but we’re unable to convert. Grace Page’s shot off a corner with just over two minutes left in the half went high.
The Hawks scored the equalizer with 27:36 left in the second half. Allison Cameron took the free kick awarded by a Waterville handball, and placed a perfect shot in the upper left corner, just out of reach of Richard.
The Panthers had another chance on a corner kick with just over five minutes left in regulation, but Jayda Murray’s header was just wide left of the net.
Serdjenian said he was pleased with the team’s season.
“I thought it was a great game and worthy of a championship game, the way the two teams battled,” Serdjenian said. “I don’t know how many people expected us to be here. I thought we’d be pretty good. I think our girls have everything to be proud of.”
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