AUGUSTA — Whether in bunches or deliberately precise, the Messalonskee girls lacrosse team gets its goals.
On Friday afternoon the Eagles conceded more than they had all season but had enough firepower in reserve to post a 12-7 win over host Cony in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference matchup. Gabby Smart and Jenna Cassani each scored three goals for Messalonskee (7-0) and Francesca Caccamo and Shauna Clark each netted a pair.
“A lot of the times it starts from a good play on defense that gets us hyped and excited,” Smart said. “We get the ball down the field, score a goal, and it kind of builds. It’s a domino effect. It’s a good play to a good goal, and it just keeps going.”
Cony’s Azabell Assaf and Raegan Bechard each scored twice for the Rams (5-4), who netted three of the game’s final four goals to put a scare into Messalonskee.
While the late rally was nice, Cony coach Gretchen Livingston thought her team could learn a valuable lesson from the Eagles.
“Offensively, we need to be more patient,” Livingston said. “We would finally get it down into our end and turn it over when we could have waited for the sure shot. I think we can learn a lot from Messalonskee and Camden Hills (a one-goal loss on Wednesday), because they take care of the ball and value possession.”
But Messalonskee wasn’t always so patient.
After Smart put the visitors on the board early in the first half, the Eagles scored four goals in a span of 2:32 midway through the period to go up 5-0. And after Cony chiseled into the deficit to make it a 6-3 game at halftime, Messalonskee scored four times in 4:09 after the break to build a 10-3 lead.
“We want to be the fastest team,” Messalonskee coach Crystal Leavitt said. “We want to show that we’re here to play, but at some points we also need to be the team that can say, ‘Let’s hang. Let’s get other people scoring. Let’s make all seven of us a threat. Let’s take care of the ball. Let’s possess it.’
“Lacrosse is very much a possession game, and we want to be able to possess it.”
If Friday was a test for a Messalonskee side in cruise control en route to the postseason, it was one they passed — with room for improvement.
“I think we played really well. (Cony) was really physical,” Smart said. “We haven’t seen a team that was that aggressive yet. I think we were ready and excited for that. That adrenaline helped us.”
“I don’t think we played our best Messalonskee game. I think we got a little ‘ugly,’ and could have kept our composure more,” Leavitt said. “There’s still stuff we’ve got to fine-tune, but I think we did a good job against Cony. I’m excited to play close games. It’s important for us to play close games against good teams.”
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