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PORTLAND — First, Zach Stewart’s heart sank. Then, another last-ditch effort didn’t initially unfold as the Maranacook/Winthrop coach hoped.

What followed just seconds later? Not heartbreak but jubilation following a goal worthy of winning any state final — and one scored by his own daughter.

Stella Stewart’s goal with 7.1 seconds left gave Maranacook/Winthrop a 10-9 victory over Traip Academy in the Class C girls lacrosse state championship game Friday at Deering’s Memorial Field. The state title is the first in program history for the Black Bears, who started varsity play in 2019.

“That wasn’t how we drew it up at all. Stella was supposed to pass to Cooper (Davis), but we did that right before, and it didn’t work out,” Zach Stewart said. “So, we were just ad-libbing, and Stella does what Stella does. She took the right shot at the right time, and now we’re state champions.”

About 15 seconds before Stella Stewart’s winner, Davis hit the post for Maranacook/Winthrop. Yet after the Black Bears kept possession, Stewart, who couldn’t find Davis and with the clock ticking, maneuvered her way through two Traip defenders and launched an overhand shot past Rangers goalie Maddie Guay for the win.

“When it gets tight like this, I close my eyes and bring on the Charlotte North, and it usually tends to work,” Stella Stewart said, referring the legendary former Boston College player known for playing with fearlessness and aggression. “I couldn’t have done that without my team. They knew where to be, and that drew out the defenders, and I had my opportunity.”

Maranacook/Winthrop, which outshot Traip 22-14, got four goals from Alice Ferran and three from Eve Ariskin and five saves from goalie Willow Woodford. Traip got three goals from Sarah Carven, two goals and two assists from Keira Alessi and two goals from Jacey Johnson. Guay had 11 saves.

Fourth-seeded Traip (11-6) was relentless in the early going, controlling the ball near the Maranacook/Winthrop goal for the entirety of the opening three minutes. The Rangers turned that possession dominance into goals by Carven, Keira Durgin and Johnson to take a 3-0 lead.

Yet No. 3 Maranacook/Winthrop (13-4) was not about to get the life choked out of it, and midway through the first quarter, the Black Bears recovered. Goals from Davis, Ariskin and Ferran in a span of 1:43 tied the game at 3-3 with 4:39 remaining in the period.

“I feel like it really got real,” Ferran said of Maranacook’s mentality after Traip took a 3-0 lead. “Our energy became so high, and we really just were like, ‘We got this; we can’t make this last game a loss.’ We really, really wanted it, and we just worked as a team. We came together so well.”

Traip regained the lead with 1:30 to go in the first on a Johnson goal and took a 6-5 lead into the half after both teams scored twice in the second. Yet after Alessi scored for the Rangers to open the second half, the Black Bears’ strongest spell of play yet netted three goals to give them their first lead.

Maranacook/Winthrop then stretched the lead to 9-7 as Ariskin scored her third of the game with 9:01 to play. Traip, though, cut the deficit back to one as Alessi assisted Carven with 7:32 left, and Alessi then scored with 6:09 to go to tie the game.

A key turnover by Traip with two minutes left gave Maranacook/Winthrop an opportunity to hold for a shot in the game’s final seconds. Zach Stewart felt Davis’ shot with 23 seconds left would be that last good look for the Black Bears, but his daughter had other ideas.

“(Traip defender Meredith McGonigle) had been hoovering ground balls for then, and when she came out of the pack first, my heart sank,” Zach Stewart said. “Then, all of the sudden, it goes back the other way, I see Stella go high and dunk it, and I was just through the roof.”

The last-ditch loss was a heartbreaker for Traip, which, like Maranacook/Winthrop, was playing in its first state championship game. The Rangers fought valiantly after losing Johnson, one of their top players, to a leg injury in the second quarter, and it took a moment of brilliance at the death to beat them.

“All season, our girls played to the final whistle,” said Traip coach Jody Donohue. “We were out a little out of sorts (after Johnson’s injury) — some of our defense started to break down a little bit — but we never stopped believing, and it came down to the final seconds in the end.”