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Central Catholic 2, Whitman-Hanson 1

LYNN — Pinned near the far sideline, Elayna Grillakis took the ball, pulled it back and heel kicked it around her defender, before spinning around and tapping it forward to thread the needle between the ball and the boundary.

Two Whitman-Hanson defenders came charging in, but Grillakis calmly danced left, leaving one hopelessly off balance and the other spinning on her heels.

There was nothing but turf in her way, but she was too far wide and the goalie still had a good angle. Teammate Ashley Raphael, however, came in unguarded from the other side, and Grillakis sensed an opportunity.

She looked up, sent in the crossing pass and watched as it land right on the leaping Raphael’s head.

Ballgame.

Raphael put it in, and the Central Catholic girls soccer team poured onto the field in raucous celebration as the Raiders rallied back from to beat Whitman-Hanson 2-1 in overtime to advance to the Division 1 state championship game.

“I knew once Ashley went into the air that it was going in,” said senior captain Erin Kinsella. “She always can get up into the ball and put her whole body in front of it.”

Central Catholic (22-0) now needs just one more win to complete a perfect season. The Raiders will face Central champ Nashoba Regional, which beat West Springfield in the other semifinal, in the Division 1 title game. The time and date at TBA.

The dramatic finish punctuated a hard-fought battle between two great teams ranked nationally that have been the consensus top two teams in the state for nearly the whole season.

The first half was about as closely contested an affair as you’ll see. Other than a flurry of activity in the 14th minute where Central hit the crossbar twice in a matter of seconds, neither team was able to put together a serious chance on offense.

That more or less remained the case in the second half, until Whitman-Hanson finally got an opportunity and made the most of it. UMass-bound Lauren Bonavita took a corner kick from the right side, and Merrimack commit Taylor Robertson headed it in to put the Panthers in front.

Now trailing for the first time all season, Central had only 25 minutes to come up with an equalizer or the season would be over. The Raiders started getting sustained pressure, but Whitman-Hanson’s defense wouldn’t give up any easy through balls.

As time wound down, Central finally started finding opportunities, and with 10 minutes to play the Raiders broke through. Grillakis took a corner kick and dropped it right into the box onto junior Caitlin Regan's head, and she headed it in for the tying goal. Originally it was credited to Sarah Berube, but actually it was Regan.

With the momentum on their side, Central pushed for the winner at the end of regulation, but couldn’t make it happen. During the ensuing intermission, Central coach Casey Grange said she told her girls to stay positive and to remember they were 21-0 for a reason.

Then, five minutes into overtime, her players delivered.

“Elayna completely broke the girl’s ankles,” Grange said of Grillakis’ play. “It looked like she was going to pass, then she went the other way, and then Ashley, like she’s been doing all season put it away.”

“I honestly couldn’t tell you what happened,” Raphael said of the winner. “I just remember turning and seeing it, it was one of those things where I had to go for it, it was do or die.”

Added Grillakis: “We’re going to win it all, I just know it. Coming from a goal down and winning in overtime, I think we can win it all.”