WATERVILLE — All-star games in any sport can be tricky. Sometimes the players take a long time to click. Sometimes they never quite get together.
In Saturday’s McNally Senior All-Star Game, the East field hockey players didn’t have that problem. After the West controlled the first five minutes, the East cruised from there and took a 3-1 victory at Colby College.
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While each half in high school field hockey games is 30 minutes, the halves for the all-star game were 25 minutes, with running time. But with temperatures in the 80s, no one was complaining.
“No matter how hard you train, you still get wicked tired with the heat,” said York’s Hannah Keating, who will be playing at the University of Maine this fall and was named the West’s Most Valuable Player. “You just gotta push through it.”
“It’s always 10 degrees hotter on turf,” said Waterville’s Lexi Russo, who scored the East’s final goal with an assist from Foxcroft’s Jen Seavey. “But it felt like 100 degrees out here.”
Goalie Asia Le of Cony was named the East MVP, and provided the first highlight of the game when she came out and stoned Bonny Eagle’s Peyton Dostie on a one-on-one breakaway in the opening minutes.
“I kind of go for it,” Le said. “You can’t stay back and hide. You gotta go for it.”
Le played the whole game and finished with six saves. You might think a goalie would have the fewest adjustments in an all-star game, but Le said the opposite is true.
“For a goalie, it’s really, really complicated, because you’re the one communicating the most on the field,” she said. “So you need to know everyone’s names. You need to know where everyone is at all times.”
The East dominated most of the game after Le’s stop on the breakaway. Orono’s Jill Tuell opened the scoring when she fired a turnaround shot into an open net, with the assist going to Winthrop’s Nikki Scott. About 10 seconds later, Jordin McGinnis scored for the East off a feed from Messalonskee’s Abbey Stacey.
The West scored in the final minutes of the second half when Scarborough’s Kristen Felt and Portland’s Effie Drew set up a goal by Emily Sawchuck of Cheverus. Though not involved in the goal, Keating stood out for the West with her midfield play.
“I’ve been training a lot for Orono,” Keating said. “I just really wanted to compare myself to the best players in Maine, and I think I did. I felt really confident.”
The other East goal came shortly after West goalie Kelsey Freedman made a nice save to stop a breakaway. That goal came when Seavey found Russo, who went all-out to make sure she got the score.
“She was dribbling down the sideline, and she crossed it and I was at stroke (line),” Russo said. “I just swept it in and I dove, actually. I don’t know if I had to dive, but I dove.”
Russo had a reason for going all-out: She is attending the Culinary Institute of America, so this was her final competitive field hockey game.
“It’s definitely bittersweet,” Russo said, “but it’s sweet how it ended.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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