Desperate times demand desperate measures and Veazie drew on the World Series champions Anaheim Angels' good luck charm to provide her team with a spark. As her team huddled before the start of the second half, Veazie waved a stuffed monkey over the huddle.

Magic happened. Brittany Veazie and Meagan Fogarty scored goals in the second half and goalie Cindy Koscielny made a save on a penalty stroke late in the game as the Tigers won their third straight state title and their 45th game in a row with a 2-1 win over Hall-Dale of Hallowell.

The win gave Eastern Maine teams a clean sweep in the state games. Earlier in the day Skowhegan had an easy time of it, defeating Edward Little of Auburn 3-0 for the Class A title and Winslow edged Greely of Cumberland Center 1-0 in the Class B championship game.

Photo by Lynne McKusick

Dexter 2, Hall-Dale 1

Dexter, 18-0, found itself in an unusual position at halftime. Only once this season had the Tigers trailed in a game and never at halftime.

But Saturday was different. On a bitterly cold and blustery day, the Tigers dominated the game with a number of near misses. Hall-Dale's first shot of the game didn't come until there was 8:14 remaining in the first half. But it was a good one. The shot by Lisa Doiron found its way into the goal and gave the Bulldogs the lead. It left the Tigers stunned and frustrated.

"I said in the huddle if Anaheim can do it, we can do it," Margaret Veazie said. "I asked if anybody had a monkey and Courtney did."

Courtney, is Courtney McCormick. She worked a slick give-and-go with Fogarty with 12:05 left in the game to the Tigers the lead.

"Courtney McCormick, we've had this little pass back and forth this year and it has worked. So, I just shot it and it beat the goalie," Fogarty said.

Brittany Veazie came up with the tying goal and it came quickly, just 1:28 into the second half when she redirected Keriann Patterson's shot into the goal.

But the 13-5 Bulldogs didn't lie down after going behind. Their persistence paid off with 3:17 left when they were awarded a penalty stroke. Again, a Dexter player came up big. This time it was Koscielny, who stopped Eliza Matthews' shot.

"I was so nervous. This was like the most nervous game I've been through this season," the goalie said. Koscielny made three saves on six Hall-Dale shots while Bulldogs' goalie Christen Lachapelle turned away nine of 18 shots.

"We knew we needed to score first. That's what we want to do and we did what we wanted to do. The second half, we just, we couldn't pull it off," an emotional Hall-Dale coach Ellen Vickers said.
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Tuesday, November 05, 2002 edition of the Bangor Daily NEWS and is used here with permission."