MADISON — Kayla Bess and Madeline Wood have been playing soccer together long before they reached Madison Memorial High School.

“Me and Kayla have been playing together forever,” said Wood, the Bulldogs’ center midfielder. “We always know where we’re going to be and what kind of passes we want.”

The Bess-Wood combination proved deadly Thursday afternoon, combining for five goals in a 9-0 victory over Boothbay in matchup of Mountain Valley Conference teams.

The win pushes the Bulldogs to the top of the Heal point standings in Class C South at 7-0-2 while Boothbay falls to 3-5-1.

Wood finished with three goals and two assists. Bess added a pair of goals an assist. Bess, a senior forward, leads the team in goals with 18 this season while Wood is second with 15. The win was certainly more than a two-girl effort as the Bulldogs overwhelmed the Seahawks with an aggressive attack and some smart passing.

“I think we’re playing really well,” Bess said. “We’re scoring a lot of goals and we’re not having too many scored against us.”

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So far, the Bulldogs have scored 53 goals while allowing eight. Sophomore midfielder Ashley Emery added a pair of goals Thursday while fullback Sydney LeBlanc and midfield Whitney Bess, both sophomores, scored a goal apiece.

“I think we’re coming along very well for this point in the season,” said Madison co-coach Erin Wood. “We’re coming off a week last week that was a very successful one and we really thought the girls showed a whole lot of improvement. That’s really what you want to see at this point in the season.”

The Seahawks might have had an inkling this wasn’t going to be their day when LeBlanc lofted along pass into the middle of the field and it took a high hop over Jaime Wheeler’s head in goal. The Bulldogs added five more goals in the first half to take a 6-0 lead — two of those from Wood, who scored on a long floating shot from the right side and added a penalty kick.

“Most of the time I try to pick a corner,” Bess said of her penalty kick, which found the left corner. “I look to see if the goalie’s cheating one way or the other.”

The Seahawks didn’t register their first shot on goal until there was 3:50 left in the first half. They finished with three for the game, none testing. Wheeler and second-half goalie Jackie Mcloon combined for seven saves on 16 Madison shots. Bess scored her second goal early in the second half when Wood sent her in alone on Mcloon, who came up with her best save on the game when she stopped Wood on a breakaway 12 minutes later.

It was difficult for the Bulldogs not to let up with their big lead, but Wood added a goal on a breakaway and Emery finished the scoring with nine minutes left.

“I think the biggest key is to keep intensity and go to the ball hard and do everything we do well all the time,” Bess said.


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