BILLERICA — Sarah Marano woke up Wednesday morning with butterflies in her stomach.
Before the Red Rangers took the ice some 11 hours later for the state quarterfinal game, those butterflies intensified, a lot.
But when the sophomore scored the game-winning goal just 1:43 into the 4-on-4 overtime period, the nervous feelings quickly switched to jubilation.
“It was crazy,” she said of the celebration at center-ice.
Marano’s wrist shot from inside of the blue line deflected off an Algonquin player and landed in the top right hand corner of the net, allowing the No. 6 seed to upset the No. 3 seed Algonquin Regional, 2-1 held at the Chelmsford Forum.
The Red Rangers (21-0-2) advance to their second Final-4 appearance and will take on the winner of No. 2 St. Mary’s of Lynn/No. 10 Reading, most likely Saturday at a neutral site.
“I knew that I had to take the puck to the net. I saw my teammate (Sophia Barbosa heading towards the net) so I knew that if I took a shot that she would be there for the rebound but then it went in by itself,” described Marano, whose goal was assisted by Lauren Ryan.
The Red Rangers held play throughout the three periods and had a 1-0 lead after the first period, before the Titans scored in the second. Neither team found the back of the net in the third, but Methuen/Tewksbury had several strong bids with shots from Lyla Chapman and Ella Duffy denied.
After a quick break before the overtime frame, interim head coach Ryan Sheehy told his team to just continue to do what they have done all season.
“I said there’s plenty of ice out there so make sure you find some and take their space away,” he said. “We do a lot of 4-on-4s in practice to prepare for situations like this. We said to them that this is just like practice so find the open player and attack when we need to attack.”
And that’s exactly what Marano did. She said that she learned that aggressiveness from Dave O’Hearn the program’s previous coach, who passed away a few months after the team’s Final-4 loss to Bishop Stang.
“We have wanted this for so long and we have been working so hard for this. Last year I was a freshman and it was really crazy to go that far. This year we’re such a family and we’re playing for Coach O’Hearn. He was such an important figure in our lives. He meant so much to all of us and kept pushing us hard every day. It’s just a big motivation to keep playing for his honor.”
Playoff hero Duffy got things going early on. She struck for her fourth goal in three tournament games coming with 5:54 left in the first period. She took a pass at the right hand circle and skated in before sending a wrist shot to the top right corner over the glove of Algonquin goalie Addy Cagan. Picking up the assists were sisters Sammy and Lauren Ryan.
The Titans tied the game up with seven minutes left in the second period. While shorthanded, Madelyn Glynn picked off an errant pass in the Red Rangers’ end, moved in and from the top of the slot, she sent a hard wrist shot to the top left corner to make it 1-1.
The score remained that way — thanks to the play of goalie Lydia Barnes (17 saves) — until Marano ended it.
“These girls work so hard. They come in, work every day and they know what they have to do,” said Sheehy. “We had so many older girls who were here last year, so they know what it takes to get (to the Final-4) and know what it takes to win (in the playoffs).”