WATERVILLE — Nokomis withstood 10 straight penalty corners from Gardiner on Tuesday night but the Warriors weren’t so fortunate on the 11th attempt in the second half.

Junior Aimee Adams finished off a nice passing sequence by two of her teammates with 8:36 left to play, giving the unbeaten Tigers a 1-0 victory.

Gardiner is 9-0-0 in Class B North play while Nokomis falls to 5-3-2.

Junior Madelin Walker put the ball in play on the penalty corner with a pass to Mikayla Bourassa. Walker took the return pass and crossed it to Adams for the goal.

“It was set up perfect,” Adams said. “It was really good.”

After a fairly evenly played first half, highlighted by a couple of critical saves from Nokomis goalie Chelsea Crockett (11 saves), the Tigers took over in the second half. The Warriors scarcely got the ball out of their own end of the field in the first 10 minutes as the Tigers registered nine penalty corners, prompting a timeout from Nokomis coach Taylor Lovely.

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“We were getting really frustrated, but we had a talk as a team,” Adams said. “We’re a second-half team.”

Gardiner was missing two players who had the flu, including starting back Amanda Cameron. Coach Sharon Gallant called up freshman Willow Lavoie and installed her at sweeper and she played well with help from Jillian Bisson and Adams.

“She did a really nice job,” said Gallant, who also drew a strong game from freshman Lindsay Bell.

Because of the Maine Principals’ Association’s efforts to regionalize schedules this season, Gardiner has not played two of its traditionally strong opponents, Winslow and Belfast, both currently unbeaten. The Tigers have outscored opponents 49-1 but Gallant is still wondering what her team is capable of.

“I think we’re getting better,” she said. “Our passing is decent. I’d like to work on defensive rotation a little more. You never really know until you face teams like this.”

The Warriors have already faced three unbeaten teams in Winslow, Belfast and Gardiner (all losses) while tying a strong Maine Central Institute team.

“We had one really rough week,” Lovely said. “We hadn’t played teams that level yet so it really woke us up and showed us what we need to work on.”

The Warriors took three shots on goal to Gardiner’s 12 and five penalty corners to 17 for the Tigers.

Crockett kept the game close with a couple of outstanding saves, none better than her stop off Hailee Lovely’s just inside the circle in the first half. Nokomis also drew a strong all-around game from senior captain Austin Leighton.


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