SANFORD — Sanford’s dream season ended Tuesday with a rude playoff awakening.

The Redskins, who cinched up the No. 2 seed on the last day of the regular season, saw their playoff push begin and end Tuesday with a 3-1 loss to No. 7 Portland, in a Western Maine Class A field hockey quarterfinal at Goodall Park.

Portland got goals from three sources and twice held two-goal leads.

Senior Natalie Ledue was the Redskins’ lone goal-scorer.

“Portland definitely earned it,” said Ledue. “They did a great job against us. It’s kind of disappointing, because we had a lot of shots on goal. But we’ve come a long way.”

Indeed, Sanford (12-2-1) had rebounded from last year’s playoff miss, just the second in the distinguished 29-year tenure of its coach, Diana Walker.

“It’s never easy,” said Walker. “You dominate 85 percent of the game, and that’s all it takes. A couple of breakdowns.”

The first of those came 20:31 into the game, when Carissa Porcaro put the Bulldogs (11-4-1) in the lead.

Porcaro took a right-wing feed from teammate Kylie Dalbec and slammed her shot inside the left post.

It came after Sanford had failed to connect on a host of scoring opportunities.

“They beat us to the ball when it counted,” said Walker. “We had the flurries, but (came away) empty handed. That was frustrating.”

While Sanford had come off a week-long layoff, the Bulldogs were fresh from Saturday’s rousing preliminary round win over No. 10 Thornton Academy that took four rounds of penalty corners to settle.

Portland coach Beth Arsenault, who had never before beaten Sanford in her 11 years at the helm, said her charges used the win over Thornton as a springboard against the Redskins.

“I reminded them that you don’t play games to not lose,” she said. “You’ve got to win them. We needed to take the ball down and score. You can’t protect (the lead). That’s not how it works. We’re not used to playing these high-pressure situations. We needed a little reminder, and thought back to that game against Thornton Academy.”

The Bulldogs added to their lead in the second half before Ledue sliced it to 2-1 with 16:23 remaining in the game.

Ledue stationed herself near the left post when Portland goalie Rachel Waterhouse kicked out Sanford’s Caroline L’Heureux’s shot. Ledue picked up the rebound and popped it home.

“I just remember being on the stroke line at the right time,” Ledue said. “The ball came, and I didn’t know who it was from.”

Unfortunately for the Redskins, they couldn’t build any momentum from that tally.

Instead, Portland’s Raechel Allen scored with 6:32 to play, which all but quenched Sanford’s hopes.

“That’s part of the reason I’m so upset right now,” said Ledue. “It’s been a great experience. Seeing the seniors, then being a senior.”

— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.