The Cape Elizabeth girls soccer team did a good job at tilting their new turf field on Monday evening as they improved their record to 3-1-1 on the season with a 6-0 triumph over Lake Region.

The Capers limited the Lakers (2-3) scoring chances while capitalizing on their own scoring opportunities to finish with two goals in the opening half and adding four more after the break.

“We need to work on our transition from the back third into the middle third and then to continue it on into the forward third of the field,” said Lake Region girls soccer coach Lynne Harrison. “We’re having a really hard time with that. And then it took us a while for our outside mids to pick up their defensive marks. We did a much better job with that as the game went on.”

“Our game plan was to try to keep possession of the ball and not just kick the ball,” said Cape Elizabeth girls soccer coach Kevin Harvey. “We didn’t want to get into a game of kick-and-chase because that is kind of their (Lake Region) strength. We changed our formation. We had been playing a 3-5-2 and we switched to a 4-4-2 and it just kind of clicked today.”

That new configuration paid dividends in the first half with Jill Smith scoring an unassisted goal to give the Capers a 1-0 lead and Gabrielle Loring adding a goal for a 2-0 advantage. Shannon Lyons assisted on the Loring score.

The Lakers maintained possession of the ball in the early stages of the second half and had a couple of decent scoring chances. Applying offensive pressure at that time were Krysti Leach, Erica Webb, Andi Mitchell, Meghan Craffey, Abby Hancock, and Megan Wandishin.

The Capers soon regained control of play in the second half applying constant pressure on the Lake Region defense. The Lakers turned away some scoring chances with solid back line play from Morgan McClean, Devin Fitzgerald, Kari Cowperthwaite and Christina Ricci.

“They realized who they had to mark and started to stay with it. I was happy with their effort,” said Harrison. “I thought we went to the ball in the second half much better than we had in the first half and I was really pleased with that.”

Carly Riker pushed the Cape lead to 3-0 when she weaved her way through the Lakers defense from the right sideline and left-footed a blast into the net. Kristen Kerney then added to the lead with an unassisted score just moments after Gabrielle Loring hit the crossbar. A nice pass from Haley Thompson sent Jen Hayashi in alone for a breakaway goal with 2:30 to play. And a 20-yard boot from Shannon Lyons sailed over the Lake goalie with 17 seconds to play for the sixth and final Cape score of the game.

The Lakers used a trio of goalkeepers during the game, including Chelsea Meyers, Renee Nicholas, and Devin Fitzgerald.

“The pre-game speech was all about 50-50 balls and winning those kind of balls,” said Harrison. “I think we did an OK job stepping up to those and that’s what we’ll need to continue to do.”

The Lakers were scheduled to host Waynflete on Wednesday, Sept. 19, and they are home against Sacopee Valley on Saturday at 11 a.m.