FARMINGTON — Thursday’s rematch between the Skowhegan and Mt. Blue field hockey teams figured to be closer than the first meeting, and in many respects it was. Just not on the scoreboard.

Skowhegan scored three goals in the first 14 minutes and Mt. Blue never recovered in absorbing a 6-0 loss.

The win leaves Skowhegan at 7-1 in Class A North play while Mt. Blue falls to 5-3.

Since losing 3-0 to the Indians in the second game of the season Mt. Blue had reeled off five straight victories, outscoring its opponents 33-0. That meant little to the Indians, who stormed into the offensive end to open the and pounded away until sophomore Alexis Michonski scored unassisted with four minutes gone. The diminutive forward would go on to score three goals, while junior midfielder Maliea Kelso scored twice and senior Julia Steeves added a goal and an assist.

“This year we’ve tried not to look at the big picture, we’ve tried to look at the pieces,” Skowhegan coach Paula Doughty said. “I tend to set the daily goals for the forwards and the mids and (assistant coach) Tammie (Veinotte) works essentially with the back. Today I think we met a lot of our goals.”

The Indians out-shot the Cougars 20-11 and both defenses were tested. The Indians, led by goalie Leah Savage (nine saves) and sweeper Haley Carter, were up to the task.

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“When push comes to shove playing the ball correctly is critical,” Veinotte said. “Defensively today they worked hard. They did all the little things right. They were helping each other out because there were no fast breaks.”

The second and third goals, from Kelso and Michonski, were products of individual effort. Kelso, who recently agreed to a scholarship offer from Northeastern University, used a strong reverse stick shot from 15 feet to beat goalie Erika McArthur.

“We just wanted to take shot after shot when we could instead of just passing it around,” Kelso said. “I didn’t have a lot of time to go for the straight shot, so I just kind of pulled and went around.”

Michonski lost the ball to a defender, regained it and beat a second defender to make it 3-0.

“I just kind of kept control of it, I moved the goalie and I moved the defense and just kind of flipped it in,” she said.

The Indians would lead 5-0 at the half as Steeves and Kelso added goals, Kelso’s coming on a long hard shot just inside the circle. Penalty corners were 10-9 in Skowhegan’s favor and the Cougars were not without their scoring chances.

“When we attacked the ball and went to the ball and went after it we were successful,” Mt. Blue coach Jody Harmon said. “when we hung back and were flat, we weren’t. You can’t do that against this team. They’re very quick. You’ve got to attack the ball and go after it”

The sixth goal, fittingly, combined Kelso and Michonski, with Kelso taking a hard shot from outside and Michonski tipping it home for her hat trick.

“We have a really young team this year,” Kelso said. “All of the juniors, we only have three,and all of the seniors we really need to pull through. We have to guide the freshmen and the sophomores and push them where they need to go.”


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