NORTH EASTON, Mass. – Twin sisters Ava and Georgia Costello are committed to play for different colleges next fall but they’re making the most out of their final games playing together for Oliver Ames.
Ava, who is headed to Regis College, scored with less than three minutes to play in regulation to tie the game while Georgia, a Salve Regina-commit, scored the game-winning goal a minute into the second overtime to give the 16th-seeded Tigers a 2-1 decision over #17 Scituate in a Division 2 Round of 32 clash.
After a scoreless 10-minute overtime of 7-on-7, the teams headed to a second extra period. It didn’t take the Tigers long to capitalize on their momentum.
OA was on the attack but a centering pass was intercepted by Scituate’s Katie Von Freymann, who split between two Tigers and raced out towards midfield. But when she crossed the halfway line, she was tracked down by OA junior Olivia Stevens, who caught up and stole the ball away.
Stevens launched it forward and junior Julia Maclaine won a battle for the ball right at half, carrying the ball into the attack against the run of plan. She used her speed to go at the lone defender, and Georgia Costello alertly drifted away into space. Maclaine played it into that space and Costello tracked it down, went in alone on goal, and slotted a low shot past the oncoming keeper for the win.
“We thought it would be a benefit for us,” said OA head coach Sharon Lawrence of the switch to 7-on-7 in overtime. “We just practiced it during a scrimmage with Foxboro the other day and we did really well with it last year [during the COVID-19 season]. Even though we have a different squad this year, it fits our team speed and our passing game. Seven-on-seven is all about possession and passing. And then Georgia is just a powerhouse in the front and we practice two-on-one’s all the time.”
Scituate staked a one-goal lead with no time left in the first half and Oliver Ames spent nearly the entire second half trying to score the equalizer. The Tigers dominated possession and the play rarely left its attacking half, but the Sailors’ defense along with goalie Beth MacCune continually thwarted chance after chance.
And it looked like it just might not be OA’s night when MacCune made a spectacular point-blank kick save on a one-timer in front off the stick of Emilee Welch after a great cross from sophomore Erin Cottam, and the rebound shot from Georgia Costello beat the keeper only to bank off the post and back out.
Maclaine earned the hosts a penalty corner after her shot on the rebound chance hit a foot. It marked the Tigers’ fifth corner of the half, but OA had yet to register a shot on goal on its first four attempts of the half.
Tyla Delamere played the corner to the stick of Georgia Costello, who played it square to her twin sister Ava for a one-timer. The shot deflected off the stick of one Scituate defender and then off of another and into the net to make it 1-1 with 2:59 to play.
“I definitely felt like we were going to get one at some point,” Lawrence said. “Before we got the corner we scored on, we had a bunch of shots in a row and I thought for sure we’d get one there. It just felt like it was going to happen…I felt like we had it in our offensive zone for most of the game. We played very pretty hockey, the passes were great, they played really well we just had to finish…but finally, we got one, it was great.”
OA withstood a pair of penalty corners from the Sailors inside the final two minutes, the visitors’ best chance of the second half. The Tigers earned a corner with 25 seconds to go Georgia Costello fired a low shot that beat the keeper but Scituate defender Abby Spires was perfectly positioned on the goal line and made the stop. The clock expired and the official blew the whistle, but after a discussion, the Tigers were awarded another penalty corner since play should have continued after time expired until the ball was cleared five yards out of the circle.
On the ensuing corner, Georgia Costello’s shot was blocked and OA had a couple of crosses into the area but the Sailors got a foot infraction to end regulation.
Overtime field hockey takes four players off the field for each team, turning it into 7-on-7. The Tigers were on the front foot for the majority of the extra period but Megan Greene did have a big save at the near post on a corner from the visitors.
Greene also had a big stop in the opening quarter, just over five minutes into the game when Scituate’s Anna Feeney split between a pair of defenders and fired a shot that was redirected off a stick. The change of direction nearly caught Green wrong-footed but she made a nice adjustment and a pad stop on the shot.
Scituate’s goal game with no time left in the first half. The Sailors had a corner that OA couldn’t clear out, resulting in another corner for the visitors. Feeney and the Sailors capitalized on that chance, firing home a shot through traffic to take a 1-0 lead at the half.
Oliver Ames advances to the Sweet 16 of the Division 2 bracket and will travel to play top-seeded Masconomet on Monday with a time to be determined.