OAKLAND — Messalonskee and Lawrence both have great defenses, but what gave Messalonskee the edge in their game Saturday was its superior offense.

In the Eastern A semifinal against the Bulldogs, Messalonskee got that offense from an expected source — senior Katie Bernatchez stepping up in a big game, and an unexpected source — junior Nikki Collier, who scored her first two goals of the season as the Eagles advanced to the Eastern A final with a 3-0 victory.

No. 2 Messalonskee (13-2-1) will face No. 1 Skowhegan (16-0-0) in the regional final at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday at the Weatherbee Complex in Hampden. This will be the fourth consecutive year those teams have met in the Eastern A final. Skowhegan won the previous three.

Lawrence (10-5-1), the No. 3 seed, had played Messalonskee evenly in two games during the regular season, a 0-0 tie in Fairfield and a 1-0 Messalonskee win in Oakland. This time, Messalonskee was able to pull away, beginning with the goal by Bernatchez with 20:31 left in the second half.

“I think the big thing against Lawrence is playing with a lot of aggressiveness,” Bernatchez said. “They always work really hard, and we just have to work harder than them.”

Messalonskee gave up a total of seven goals in back-to-back games with Skowhegan at the end of the season, but the Eagles have given up only one goal in two playoff games. Lawrence’s only penalty corner came with under four minutes to play, after the Eagles had built their 3-0 lead.

“We worked on defense a lot in the past week and made a lot of adjustments after playing those two games against Skowhegan,” Messalonskee coach Katie Gorham said. “Our communication and the flow of our defense is better than ever now.”

After a scoreless first half, the Eagles had three consecutive penalty corners. On the third, the ball went past Kristy Bernatchez to Katie Bernatchez on the right side, and she nailed a shot inside the left post.

“It’s a corner that we do all the time,” Katie Bernatchez said. “If it gets by Kristy, I have the shot, and that’s what happened.”

“Katie showed us her real ability today,” Gorham said. “She ran the show out there today. You can tell just by our spacing and everything — Katie helps control everything on that field. Boy, when she’s on, it is fun to watch.”

The next two goals were scored by Collier, a junior right wing. Actually, she played right wing only once before this game, and that was for a couple of minutes. No matter, she still scored twice in less than three minutes to give Messalonskee a comfortable 3-0 lead.

“Nikki’s our go-to sub,” Gorham said. “She can play anywhere on that field, without practicing. We just decided to try something new on the front, to mix it up a little for their defense. She’s a good player. She doesn’t let the pressure of the game affect her.”

“My dad’s team, we do indoor, (and) he just has us play anywhere,” Collier said. “So that helped a lot.”

Lawrence tested Messalonskee goalie Lexy Cole a few times, but Cole was ready and made five saves. Her best was when Lawrence’s Caitlin Koller cut to the post and got a nice long pass from Samantha Spaulding. Cole slid over to seal off the post and block Koller’s tip-in.

“We had a couple shots where Lexy stopped it and she was out of position. If we would have had the rebound, it’d be a goal,” Lawrence coach Lisa Larrabee said. “We’re not a high-scoring team. It’s a very fast game, and my (midfielders) were doing a lot of running on defense, so they weren’t always there to help with the sustained attack on offense.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

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