BOW – Senior midfielder Lexi Insana stepped up to the ball on the penalty spot. She took a deep breath and blasted it into the top of the net to win the game for Bow in overtime over Merrimack Valley, 3-2. 

“We've been practicing PK’s during practice a lot, and I always go to the same spot. What was going through my mind was, just to be calm, focused, imagine it was practice,” she said.

No. 7 Merrimack Valley (7-6-5) was coming off a big, 3-1, win over Milford in the prelims and was faced with the tall task of taking down No. 2 Bow (13-3-1) in the quarterfinal, away from home.

In the previous encounter between the two, Merrimack Valley lost at home, 4-2. Beating the high-flying Falcons away was a difficult endeavor.

“I hope they learn that they can do it. To believe in themselves and keep that mental toughness going, not to give up, and to grow from there,” said Merrimack Valley’s head coach, Kylee Yam. “So besides the PK, the all-around fight is what I want them to take from it, and that if they all give it what they have for all 80 minutes, then we can we can go quite far in this division.”

It was a shock to the Falcons when the Pride opened the scoring 11 minutes into the game after a miscue between goalkeeper Gwen Barrieau and her defender under pressure resulted in junior midfielder Isabelle Navoy scoring on an empty net. 

Yet, Bow had maintained its strength through the midfield and answered within two minutes. Freshman midfielder Marissa Reyes sent a long looping cross from the right wing that dropped through the outstretched hands of MV goalkeeper Jordan Monaghan and into the back of the net.

The next 62 minutes were a battle, with both teams gaining momentum offensively and two yellow cards assessed to Bow players, but neither team got good looks on target. That was until Bow freshman forward, Ava Popielarz, got the ball in the box and tucked it into the right side of the net despite Monaghan getting a touch on the ball, to put the Falcons up 2-1.

With less than five minutes to go, it seemed like Merrimack Valley would fail to upset Bow, but at the death of the game, senior midfielder Sydney Bailey earned a corner for the Pride from which she sent an out-swinging cross that sophomore midfielder Sophie Porter managed to get a head on to equalize.

“We could have hung our heads and we fought back and tied it up, which was good. We needed to do that,” said Bow’s head coach, Jay Vogt. “At the end of the game like that, that’s a hard thing to recover from, but we talked about getting our fortitude, knowing that we should believe in ourselves.”

The momentum pendulum had swung and the upset in Merrimack Valley’s favor was brewing. Their elation was cut short by the penalty given to Bow a minute into overtime, and Insana delivered the final blow.

“We definitely went in really nervous, really shaken up, but we pulled it together,” said Insana. “We knew we wanted to get to semis. We wanted it more, and we just fought for it, and we just kept pushing through and moving forward.”

Next, the Falcons will face off against the No. 6 Kingswood Knights in the semifinal. The game will be played at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter on Monday at 4 p.m.

“We have to get back to our game of possession, we got away from it a little bit too much,” said Vogt. “It was a little too hectic and we have to learn, as a team, to not get caught up in the hectic and try to settle things down, and it's tough in playoffs with the nerves and everything, people don't want to make mistake.”

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com