Victoria Newbill, who was everywhere on the field all game long, backhanded the ball past Oxford Hills keeper Shannon Fillebrown with 2:54 to play in the second overtime to cap a penalty corner and lift the visiting Cougars to a 2-1 KVAC win.

“That’s kind of what we hope for upfront, she’s the one we feed to,” Mt. Blue coach Jody Harmon said. “She has that speed.”

“I can’t do things like that, get to those shots, without teammates like Leah (St. Laurent),” Newbill said. “We’re a very fast team. We have a lot of young girls, but their speed is incredible, so just having them go to every ball makes it so much easier.”

On Newbill’s winner, it was St. Laurent who chased down a loose ball after the corner and fired a shot toward the cage.

“I think it might have been a deflection on the goalie, but if it was, it didn’t go too far,” Newbill said. “I saw it, and reverse is the best on that side of the cage. I don’t see much on those, I just try to get it in.”

“We have a lot of speed out front, we have a lot of heart,” Harmon said.

That flurry capped a pair of overtime periods during which the Cougars (5-3) controlled much of the play.

“That was our first overtime of the year,” Oxford Hills coach Cindy Goddard said. “It’s good to see all of the things we need to do in overtime, with the substitutions, who has gas at the end of the game, and the different situations when it’s smaller numbers. It’s a more mental game, a more gutsy game, and we have to get better in that situation.”

Mt. Blue controlled the early part of the game, and play was concentrated in front of Fillebrown, who finished with 12 saves.

“She’s a great goalie, she’s been there for us all year,” Goddard said.

The Cougars did break through later in the half on a redirected ball in front after a cross from Newbill at the left post with seven minutes to play.

Undaunted, the Vikings (5-3) fought back in the first part of the second half.

“I tried to tell my team that, we knew they were going to come back even stronger,” Harmon said. “Sure enough, they did, they did exactly what we thought they would.”

Just 25 seconds into the frame, Oxford Hills’ Bailey Wood rushed up the middle, pushing her way into the circle before sweeping a shot into the cage past Mt. Blue keeper Whitney Levesque.

“Mt. Blue pushed back in the latter stages of the game, but Fillebrown shut the door, forcing the extra sessions.

“I guess we just like to play it right to the end,” Harmon said. “This is a team that just never gives in, we have a lot of heart. Every win is great, every win is important.”

jpelletier@sunjournal.com