AUGUSTA — There haven’t been many times the Belfast field hockey team has found itself trailing this season.
A two-goal deficit, then, was a chance for the Lions to test their character — and with the way they answered, you can consider that test aced.
Belfast scored six unanswered goals Tuesday in a 6-3 victory over Cony in a battle of Class B North contenders at Fuller Field. The Lions scored five of those goals in the third quarter to snap Cony’s winning streak at seven games and stretch their own streak to eight.
“We just had the mentality that the game wasn’t over yet and that we still had plenty of time to get it in the goal and work our passing game, and we did,” said Belfast senior forward Breanna Shorey. “Once we got one, we kept getting them.”
Shorey and Lawless Desrochers had two goals each for Belfast, which also got a goal and two assists from Payten Wadsworth and a goal from Halle Tarbox. Abby Morrill had two goals for Cony, and Helen Dineen added one.
Belfast (10-1) applied relentless pressure early, peppering the Cony goal in the opening minutes and forcing the Rams’ Avery Maxim into action. Yet after a defensive blunder by the Lions at the other end, the home team struck first as Dineen pounced to make it 1-0 with 10:14 left in the opening quarter.
The game would slow down for the next quarter and a half before Morrill made it 2-0 for Cony (8-3) with 6:33 left in the first half. Belfast then answered 1:19 before halftime as Shorey scored on a powerful shot off a penalty corner to halve the deficit going into the break.
“That first one was unfortunate in how it bounced weird, and then they got another, but we knew we could come back,” said Belfast head coach Jan Jackson. “We settled down and played good defense. The girls really took care of business.”
Three minutes into the second quarter, Desrochers scored for Belfast to tie it. The Lions nearly took the lead three minutes later, and with 5:26 left quarter, they would take the lead courtesy of Wadsworth.
Cony head coach Holly Daigle then called timeout in an effort to stop the bleeding. Instead, it only worsened.
Exactly one minute after Wadsworth’s goal, Tarbox scored on a penalty stroke to make it 4-2 Belfast. Shorey then scored on a backhanded shot with 1:58 left in the third before Desrochers deflected one in with 11 seconds left in the quarter for the Lions’ final goal.
The loss was the first for Cony since a 2-1 defeat to Lawrence on Sept. 12. The Rams, who got their third goal courtesy of Morrill midway through the fourth quarter, showed promise at times but ultimately could not stop Belfast from riding its passing and speed to an onslaught of goals.
“We got good pressure on the cage, but Belfast, in that third quarter, they moved the ball up the field so fast,” Daigle said. “They just have so many girls who can handle the ball so well, and they cut to it really well. Overall, I did think we did some good things; I loved the intensity in the fourth quarter to get a goal back.”
Cony entered the game having outscored foes 59-5 over the course of its seven-game winning streak. The Rams had been particularly lethal over their most three recent wins, scoring 41 goals over that span and putting in 15 against both Oceanside and Mount View.
Yet Belfast came in on a heater of its own, fresh off a 7-0 win over a Class A contender in Messalonskee. Although Desrochers said the Lions were wary of Cony given the Rams’ win over a Gardiner team that handed Belfast its only loss, she and Shorey were fully confident in the Lions’ chances.
“We’re both high-scoring teams; I thought it was going to be a two-goal game — very close,” Shorey said. “We just had to keep putting it in so we could get the lead.”
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