WATERBORO — High seeds on the Western Maine Class A field hockey ladder had already become an endangered species.
Thursday, they became extinct altogether, when No. 5 Marshwood ousted No. 4 Massabesic 3-0 in a regional quarterfinal tilt.
The Mustangs joined the top three seeds ”“ Scarborough, Sanford and Cheverus ”“ on the sidelines, all having fallen to upset hungry underdogs.
This, however, was anything but a mismatch, as the teams sported identical 11-3 regular season marks, with the Hawks having already beaten Massabesic, 2-1, on the last day of the regular season.
“You can’t get more even than that,” said Massabesic coach Michele Martin-Moore. “But they truly outplayed us today.”
Marshwood grabbed a 2-0 first half lead, then cruised the rest of the way.
Sophomore Karissa Boesch put the Hawks on the board 10 minutes into the game, when she knocked in a centering feed from Hailey Bruno-Moulton.
“You get up 1-0, and having already beaten us once this season, I’m sure that gave them confidence,” Martin-Moore said. “If we had scored first, I think it might have been different.”
Ashley Hickey followed suit with six minutes left in the half, putting Massabesic in a two-goal hole.
The Mustangs did have six penalty corner chances in that half, including three in one short sequence, but came away empty handed, as Marshwood defenders all but smothered Mustang attackers throughout the game.
“We definitely played hard,” said sophomore forward Alex Staples. “And we stuck to our game plan. They were just the better team. Cutting to the ball was a little slow. Their layers were really tight, so it was hard for us to get the ball through.”
Said Martin-Moore, “They were just beating us to the ball today. We needed to make quicker decisions. But we weren’t able to do that.”
Massabesic did put pressure on the Hawks’ defense for prolonged stretches in the second half, but couldn’t eat into the deficit.
“It’s a tough game,” said Martin-Moore. “We had a great season. But to have a complete season, our goal was to get to the next round.”
Although she was disappointed with the quick halt to this season, Staples said she was already looking forward to the next one.
“I think next year’s going to be great,” she said. “We have the talent. We have people leaving who are a big part of our team. But we also have a lot of people coming up. And they’re going to help us fill those spots. I think we’ll be as good, if not better.”
— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com or follow on Twitter @DanHickling.
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