OAKLAND — The Messalonskee High School field hockey team had something to prove Tuesday afternoon.
“We want people to know that we are going into the playoffs strong,” junior forward Lynnae Luettich said. “We’re a completely new team. We wanted to come out super-pumped.”
No. 2 Messalonskee did just that, routing No. 7 Oxford Hills 7-1 in an Eastern A quarterfinal game.
The Eagles (12-2-1) will host No. 3 Lawrence (10-4-1) in a conference semifinal game Saturday at a time to be determined.
No. 7 Oxford Hills, which managed just two shots Tuesday, finished 5-8-2.
“They are tough,” Oxford Hills coach Cynthia Goddard said. “We were defending most of the time. You can’t contain them one on one. They just have a lot of weapons.”
Mara Balboni and Luettich each scored two goals for the Eagles, who took 19 shots. Emily York, Katie Bernatchez and Kristy Bernatchez also scored.
“We had a lot of stuff we wanted to work on,” Messalonskee coach Katie Gorham said. “There were certain goals we wanted to achieve, like offensive passing and getting back on defense. Our offense did a good job.”
The Eagles put this one away early.
Balboni beat Oxford Hills goalie Shannon Fillebrown about four minutes into the game before Luettich made it 2-0 when she popped in a rebound off of a Jessica Boghosian shot with 20 minutes, 18 seconds left in the half.
“It was a little dub off the goalie’s pads, and I just put it in,” Luettich said.
Luettich scored her second of the game with 1:58 left in the half.
“I pulled around a few people and swept it in,” she said.
The Eagles scored two goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half, from York and Balboni, to put away the game.
“This is a step in the right direction,” Katie Bernatchez said. “We did a real good job of passing the ball on offense.”
Kristy Bernatchez made it 6-0 when she scored from the top of the circle with 9:13 left in regulation.
“I got the ball at the top and hit the left post,” she said. “It felt pretty good.”
Senior Heather Verrier spoiled the shutout for Lexi Cole, who needed to make just one save, when she scored for the Vikings with 1:18 left.
Bill Stewart — 621-5640
bstewart@centralmaine.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
