BY JERRY LIPTAK

They outshot ’em, outmuscled ’em, even outhustled ’em. But the girls of Bow High School soccer needed overtime to outscore the hosts of Coe-Brown Northwood Academy, 2-1, on Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Robert E. Bailey Athletic Complex.

“It’s good for us,” said Bow head coach Jay Vogt. “The girls have to find out how to play in close games.”

With a little luck for the locals, this particular game would have been anything but tight.

The Lady Falcons hit the crossbar twice, once in each half. They completely controlled play from the third minute of the contest through the 78th minute, forcing Coe-Brown’s keeper, Kim Comtois, into save after spectacular save. They didn’t allow the Bears a single shot on goal until the 79th minute, leaving Falcon keeper Orli Gottlieb as a bystander at the far end of the field.

With approximately one minute remaining, the lone Bow defensive breakdown left Gottlieb with no chance to stop a point-blank shot from her left, completely shifting the psychological advantage to the Bears for OT.

“We’ve lost that focus for stretches of time,” said Vogt, who added the team allowed three goals in its first four wins, all in the final three minutes of a match. “It didn’t hurt us those other times, but you can’t be individuals in a game like this. You’ve got to continue working as a team.”

Midfielder Katie Foy deposited “a great shot,” said Vogt, for the golden goal, curling the ball past the keeper and into the lower right-hand corner of the net, putting smiles back on frustrated faces of her teammates.

The Lady Falcons took a 1-0 lead in the game’s 27th minute when midfielder Cammy Laboe put one in net off a corner kick from forward Lauren Allison.

Vogt said the 2007 season can end as happily as Saturday’s struggle – if the team’s nine seniors, seven juniors, four sophomores and one freshman embrace the idea of a single, strong group.