AUGUSTA — You don’t need to ask Jordin Williams if history was something the Brewer field hockey team had on its mind Wednesday night.

Of course it was.

The Witches wanted this, to be the team to end Skowhegan’s streak of 22 consecutive regional championships. And they did so with a 3-0 triumph at Cony High School to win their first regional crown and end the River Hawks’ sensational reign as queens of Class A East/North.

“I mean, isn’t it a goal of everybody’s?” said Williams. “We were nervous — we didn’t know for a fact (we could do it), but I think we had a feeling.”

Brewer (15-2) advances to Saturday’s Class A state championship game against South champion and defending state champion Cheverus (17-0) at Edward Little High School.

Williams scored the opening goal for second-seeded Brewer with 11:15 to go in the second quarter. Paige Oakes then scored in the third and fourth quarters for the Witches, whose win sets up the first Class A state championship game without Skowhegan since Nov. 4, 2000 — 8,768 days ago.

Following a first quarter that produced no real opportunities, Brewer nearly scored just 30 seconds into the second. That would serve as a warning sign for Skowhegan, and just three minutes later, the Witches took the lead as Williams poked the ball into the cage after the River Hawks were called for a foul.

Top-seeded Skowhegan (14-3) then picked up the pace, and, four minutes later on the game’s first corner, nearly scored on a long-range shot from Sydalia Savage. Yet Brewer held, and with 8:02 left in the second quarter, Oakes scored her first goals to make it 2-0 Witches.

“Brewer is an outstanding team, and they were much stronger and more seasoned than we were,” said Skowhegan head coach Paula Doughty. “I thought we did alright; they had four shots, and three went in, and we had seven corners, and nothing went in. It was just one of those nights.”

Although Skowhegan had chances in the third quarter and stayed on the attack in the fourth, nothing the River Hawks did yielded a goal.

Then, with 5:19 left, Oakes set Brewer on course for history with her second goal, and the Witches ended a run that began five years before any of their players were born.

Brewer, as Williams said, had a feeling they could pull off this victory, especially after having beaten Skowhegan 3-2 in the season opener. But did they think they’d be able to do it in such emphatic fashion?

“I’m going to be honest: No,” Oakes said. “We all worked together as a team, and we passed, and we played together. We cheered each other on and didn’t get down on each other.”

Despite the loss, Skowhegan did well to reach this game with a young roster that featured numerous freshmen and sophomores in the starting lineup. Doughty said after Saturday’s semifinal win over Mt. Blue that she thought the River Hawks would go 8-6 this year, a sentiment she expressed again Wednesday.

Still, every Skowhegan team over the course of the 22-year run has made it a mission not to be the team that failed to extend it. That’s a cross the 2024 River Hawks must now bear, something Doughty acknowledged is unfortunate for a young team that’s made massive strides this season.

“The thing about it is it’s not hard on me; it’s hard on the kids,” Doughty said. “They don’t want to be that team, and they’ll always remember for the rest of their life that they’re that team, but I’m so proud of them. To make it to a (Northern) Maine championship with this group of kids, it’s just amazing.”

As for Brewer? Well, the Witches will be remembered as the team that finally ended it. Doing that was the cherry on top of a remarkable performance that sent them to their first-ever state championship game.

“I’m so happy,” Oakes. “This is, like, the best thing that could have ever happened.”