The Boothbay Region High School girls soccer team upset the Mt. Abram Roadrunners, 2-0, in the preliminary round of the Class C South tournament on Saturday, Oct. 22 at Salem Township. Boothbay, ranked 10th, will now face second-ranked Madison on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 3 p.m. in Madison.

"Wow, what a win!" wrote coach Ben Powell in an email to the newspaper. "The girls played their hearts out and I couldn't be more proud.  Boothbay came limping into the game missing three starters, Angie Perkins, Cheyenne Rogers, and ReAnna Heino, and started the game with only one sub available.”

Hannah Cola opened the scoring with a breakaway goal in the first half after collecting her own rebound off the post and putting it away.

"Mt Abram had no answer for her speed the entire game," said Powell. Boothbay went into the half leading 1-0.

"They extended their lead on a great goal by Olivia Paolillo early in the second half on a cross from Reagan Cola," said Powell.  "The Seahawks were in great shape at this point but things took a turn for the worse when Reagan Cola went down with an ankle injury with about 30 minutes to play. Up to this point Reagan had been controlling the defensive mid-field the entire game. Since there was only one sub available, from this point on every girl had to play the rest of the game.

"At this point I made the decision to shift our strategy to pure defense. The girls were cold, wet, and tired and Mt Abram had not yet shown the ability to really challenge Jackie McLoon in goal, who played fabulous in the shutout.  There were a couple close calls but it paid off as Boothbay was able to hold off Mt Abram for a playoff victory! 

"I know I already said it once, but I'm so proud of the way the girls played tonight. It truly was a team effort and the majority of the girls played the full 80 minutes. We will face a strong Madison team next week, but just like we did today we'll give them our best shot!"