BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
OWEGO — When Whitney Point blitzed the Owego goal for four goals in 72 seconds, it appeared that a senior night win would elude the Indians. Instead, the team came together and rallied to pull out an exciting 12-11 overtime victory here Friday.
Lauren Angelone scored the winning goal with 1.6 seconds remanning in the extra session, but it was Owego’s play at the other end of the field moments earlier that set the stage for the celebration of triumph.
Whitney Point controlled the ball for the majority of the three-minute OT, but Owego’s defense stiffened and goalie Macey Harrell made the goal impenetrable, coming up with two big saves near the 2- and 1 1/2-minute marks.
As overtime moved into its final minute, Grace Doty scooped up a ground ball and shoveled it off to Harrell. Harrell dished off to Zoe Mahon, who raced to the other end of the field. Moments later, Angelone would get the ball and as she moved in close to take a shot, the Golden Eagles were whistled for a shooting space foul. Angelone would convert from the ensuing free position for the win.
“She makes me nervous when she does that, but we finally got it and Zoe was wide opinion that outlet pass and I hit her and she just ran down the field, and she did what she had to do,” Harrell said of Doty’s effort to set the wheels of victory in motion.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better effort and we wanted give our seniors a win on their senior night,” said Owego head coach Ashlee Marsh. “It’s their last sport before they go off to college.
“We couldn’t ask for anything more. It was total team effort. Macey had some amazing saves in goal and that helped us get the ball down the field and Lauren finished the job.”
Harrell applauded the Indians’ defensive effort.
“It was huge,” she said. “Before the (second) half started we came together, we talked about what we had to do to keep this win for us and I think they really stepped up. I was making saves and they were playing good defense, so I think as a defense as a whole we were doing really well together.”
The Indians initially stepped up their game early in the second half as Mahon tied the score at five just 32 second after the face-off.
Angelone gave Owego its first lead of the evening, 6-5, at 21:53. After Amy Stevens tied the score again at 19:30, Abby Lavo ignited a three-goal run when she found the back of the net at 18:59, Mahon followed with back-to-back goals at 17:22 and 15:01 to give the hosts a 9-6 advantage.
“What I think happened is the girls finally realized this is a winnable game, and they realized that if they came together and supported each other they could win tonight, and they did,” Owego assistant coach Brianna Prince said.
However, just when the Indians were getting comfortable, the Eagle offense moved into rapid fire mode. Brenna Bough scored on a pass from Stevens at 9:17, then scored unassisted at 8:55. Bough fed Savannah Burlison for a goal 10 seconds later, then polished off the burst with an unassisted goal at 8:05, putting the Point back in front, 10-9.
“We’ve struggled with that all season,” Marsh said. “We’ve had that happen where we’ve been up several goals and then we get excited, and then they come back and tie it up and then we end up losing. For them to be able to adjust and come back after them scoring those four goals just shows their true character.
“That was huge. We talked before we went back out on the field and we told them, ‘You guys can fix what you’re doing and win this for your seniors or we can keep doing what we’re doing and walk away with a loss,’” Marsh added.
Allee Schumacher tied the score at 10 at 5:33, but Stevens made it 11-10 with 3:10 to play.
Mahon tied the score for the eighth time with an unassisted goal at 2:22.
The game’s early action provided a back-and-forth battle. The Eagles’ Victoria Petricelli scored the first goal of the day at 21:37, but Angelone responded with a goal at 20:18. After several scoreless minutes, Bough made it 2-1 at 12:32.
After Lavo tied the game at two with an unassisted goal at 11:54, Bough picked up consecutive assist on goals by Burlison at 11:42 and Stevens 14 seconds later, giving Whitney Point its biggest lead of the game at 4-2.
Schumacher scored unassisted at 6:40, then Lavo tied the game at four at 5:56. The Eagles grabbed a 5-4 halftime lead on a Graves goal at 4:30.
Harrell made 12 saves in the win.
Mahon scored four goals, Angelone and Lavo contributed hat tricks, and Schumacher added two more.
Owego visits M-E at 5 p.m. Monday.
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IN PHOTO 1: Owego’s Macey Harrell. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
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