NEWPORT — Marissa Shaw and Leah Edmondson were such a huge part of Nokomis field hockey that it’s strange to see the Warriors without them. With both gone to graduation, Nokomis is showing signs that it will still be competitive this season.

On Friday, Nokomis out-shot defending state champion Belfast but lost a close game. On Tuesday, the Warriors rebounded with a 3-1 victory over a solid Mt. View team.

“Actually, we’ve come together a lot better than I thought we would,” Nokomis midfielder Taylor Lovley said. “Everyone’s stepped it up. It’s not just one person, it’s everyone — all the forwards, all the mids.”

Lovley, Drew Graves, and Kayla Braley all scored for Nokomis (1-1-0). Graves also assisted on Lovley’s and Braley’s goals.

Mt. View (1-1-0) was strong in the preseason — including a tie with two-time defending Class A state champion Skowhegan — and played evenly with the Warriors in the first half. Sophomore midfielder Kersey Boulay stood out with her defense, and goalie Abbie Charrier made a quick save of a hard shot by Graves.

But Nokomis took the lead for good when Graves scored with 3:56 left in the first half, and Mt. View seemed to take a step back after that. The Mustangs had the first penalty corner of the second half, but Nokomis had the last 12.

“We played teams that are as good as Nokomis in preseason, but I’m not seeing what I saw in preseason,” Mt. View coach Gloria Hewett said. “We played a little flat.”

Nokomis got all three of its goals on corners, and converted its first corner of the second half. Graves inserted the ball to Lovley, who took a step in and drilled a shot that deflected off Charrier’s pads and into the cage for a 2-0 lead.

Mt. View responded with its brightest spark of the game, as the Mustangs caught Nokomis in a missed assignment. Three minutes after Lovley’s goal, Larissa Hannan took a shot from the right side, and an unmarked Braley Leadbetter tipped it in on the left post to get Mt. View on the board.

“We weren’t marking that post player, and it kind of just got hit across and deflected in,” Nokomis coach Katie Thompson said. “It was a pretty goal by her.”

The Warriors got stronger after Leadbetter scored, and pounded the cage until Braley blasted in a shot from the top of the circle with 3:27 left. Nokomis finished with advantages of 11-3 in shots and 15-2 in penalty corners.

While the Warriors will look to keep blending their young players into the rotation, Mt. View will look to get back on track. The Mustangs have the rest of the season to do that, but in one sense they don’t have much time at all: Mt. View hosts Winslow, another Eastern B contender, on Thursday afternoon.

“If we play like this against Winslow, we’ll lose,” Hewett said. “We need to keep our stick on the ball, instead of tapping it. We need to move our feet more. They outhustled us. I’m surprised that they did that, that we didn’t work as hard as I think we can work.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

 

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