The Raven Nation came loose Saturday afternoon, Nov. 21, when, down 2-1 to four-time champion and winner of 17 state championships Tower Hill with under nine minutes to play, the unimaginable comeback commenced.

Maxine Fluharty crossed a ball from the deep right corner across the goal mouth, and Abby Atkins one-timed the ball into the boards behind freshman goaltender Lindsay Luft. The dull clunk was heard throughout the Dover stadium. The game was suddenly tied at 2 with 8:25 remaining as the large crowd rose and stayed on its feet.

“I knew we would never stop playing hard,” said coach Nancy Tribbitt, who started the team at Tech 20 years ago. “There were just tough kids at every position all over the field. Three of our four wins were one-goal wins. I knew when Tower Hill was up 2-to-1 they were working hard for goal number three.”

Abby Atkins, who scored the winning goal with under four minutes left in a 1-0 win over Cape in the semifinals, cranked a hard shot on goal that was deflected by the stealth and sneaky stick of Logan Pavlik at 3:06 for what proved to be the game winner.

Pavik had deflected a hard Atkins shot from outside the circle at 26:03 into the game tog ive the Ravens the lead. The Hillers answered on a goal from Alexis Saunders at 20:40 on an assist from Kali Digate.

Tower Hill took the lead off a long corner at the 25:41 mark of the second half on another goal by Alexis Saunders on an assist from Christina Freibott.

Tech showed tough, tungsten-titanium tenacity on the defensive end of the field contesting all Tower Hill pushes into the open space inside the circle in front of goalie Caitlin Stone as Courtney Rickards, Kayla Kraus and Betsy Coulbourn dug deep to keep the Ravens within one goal.

“It was just about everyone doing their job,” Rickards said after the game, standing alongside her defensive mates. “Coach told us at tournament time, the game would come more to us. We are all just so happy we could win this for our school and our coaches. Coach Tribbitt is just amazing and pushed us hard, and we all believed we could win the championship.”

Tower Hill outshot the Ravens 15-6 but Caitlin Stone was credited with 15 saves.

NOTES: Buster the dog - team mascot - was in the house afterward receiving the most pats of any player. Kelsey Doherty played a strong tournament in the midfield scoring two goals in the 4-0 win over Archmere and the only goal in the 1-0 opening-round win over Middletown. Maxine Fluharty didn’t light up the scorebook but played lights out on defense especially on corners and continually iced the ball in the final minutes to preserve the victory.