WATERVILLE — The Messalonskee High School field hockey team is going to get exactly what it wanted — another shot at Lawrence.
The Bulldogs (13-2) are the only team to beat the Eagles (13-2) this season, but next week they will meet in the Eastern A semifinals after both teams won their quarterfinal games Thursday.
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“We need some redemption. We want it really, really bad,” Messalonskee senior Ally Leighton said. “Lawrence is a great team, so we need to just come in with an extreme amount of intensity and get ready to play a great game.”
A start like the Eagles had in their 6-0 victory over Oxford Hills at Thomas College Thursday would not be the worst thing in the world for Messalonskee when it finally does square off against Lawrence.
All it took was 58 seconds for the Eagles to jump ahead on the scoreboard as Haley Lowell set up Nathalie St. Pierre for a quick strike. Less than four minutes later Leighton helped make it 2-0 Messalonskee as she found an open Lydia Dexter with a great pass for another goal.
“We’ve got to treat every game like a championship game. Oxford Hills, they are a great team,” Leighton said. “We need to treat every team like it’s our biggest competition so getting off to a good, quick start is really important to us.”
From there the Eagles cooled off though, and settled for the same 2-0 advantage at halftime. Leighton said she was not sure if the cold rain that peppered the turf field throughout the contest was a factor in Messalonskee’s slowed play, but Oxford Hills goalkeeper Shannon Fillebrown — who finished with 13 saves — certainly was.
“Their goalkeeper, I can’t say enough great things about her. She is absolutely amazing,” Messalonskee coach Kate McLaughlin said. “She does a great job and I think she definitely makes our girls frustrated.”
Even though the Eagles could not get another shot past Fillebrown in the final 25 minutes of the first half, Messalonskee was never really in danger of losing the lead as the field was decidedly tilted in its favor.
Ultimately that advantage in possession paid off in the form of a penalty stroke 3:21 into the second half, which Leighton converted by lifting a shot inside the left post.
“We definitely slowed down the second half of the first half and kind of lost a little momentum,” McLaughlin said. “Ally being a senior captain, she’s the leader of this team and to see her complete that successfully definitely motivated everyone.”
From there Messalonskee rolled, as Riley Field scored off an assist from Emily Hogan with 13:21 remaining and less than one minute later Field returned the favor by setting up Hogan for a goal.
Sierra McLellan capped off the game’s scoring with a goal with 4:36 remaining in the contest.
Evan Crawley — 621-5604
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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