SACO — After an 8-7 overtime loss to Kennebunk on Tuesday, Massabesic girls lacrosse coach Brooks Bowen said his program has “always been pretty resilient.”

On Friday against Thornton Academy, Bowen’s team proved him correct, to an extent that even he probably couldn’t have predicted.

The Mustangs came out of the gates firing and didn’t let up, scoring the first seven goals of the game ”“ and dictating nearly every second of what had looked on paper to be an even matchup going in ”“ to come away from Hill Stadium with a dominant 12-2 victory.

“I’m so proud of the girls, they came out of the gates just flying around,” Bowen said. “I wasn’t sure after the game the other night we were going to have our legs back, but they showed up ready to go and continued to pour it on, and that’s all you can ask for from a team.”

Rayne Wilson led Massabesic (6-3) with four goals, while Heather Everett tallied three and Karlie Pike two as the Mustangs outshot the Trojans 16-6.

“We came out to win and we were on exact point all the way through the game,” Everett said. “Sometimes we let up but today we just kept on going. That was really nice to see.”

Thornton (6-3) also came into the game with some adversity to overcome after a heartbreaking 8-7 loss to Scarborough, a game the Trojans at one point led 6-3, and in which senior captain Katelyn Pierson was removed from the field by paramedics after a nasty collision in the final seconds.

But coach Craig Agreste labeled the loss of Pierson, who leads the Trojans in goals, assists and ground balls and should return to the team within the next few games, as “no excuse” for his team’s performance.

“In sports a lot of things can happen. The things that transpired the other night were emotional, but that’s not the reason why we got beat today,” Agreste said. “Adversity hits and you’ve got to bounce back, and today we didn’t bounce at all.

“It’s a team effort, and we didn’t do the little things you need to do compete right from the get-go. I knew from the first minute and a half what the game was going to be.”

The Mustangs did control the game from the opening stages, finding the net first five minutes in when Alyssa Gilman found a cutting Pike wide open in front of net for an easy shot past Thornton goalie Allie McCarthy.

“The girl just walked in,” Agreste said of the opening goal. “Too easy.”

Two goals from Whitten and one from Everett followed in the next four minutes to make things 4-0, while on the other end Thornton found possession increasingly hard to come by.

And when the Trojans did get the ball they turned it over far too often ”“ 12 times in total in the half.

“We knew when we had the ball on offense they would pressure us, and we didn’t handle it,” Agreste said. “We turned the ball over, we held on to the ball too long. Those are things you definitely can’t do against good, quality opponents.”

Five of those first-half turnovers were caused by Everett, including a pair at the midway point of the quarter that led to goals in transition from Jackie Guillemette and Haley Binette that put the Mustangs up 6-0.

“That’s something I’ve been struggling with throughout the season,” Everett said of the defensive side of her game. “I look at the people behind me and that’s something they don’t struggle with, so it was really nice (that) everyone was connecting from defense to midfield to attack.”

“I was pretty impressed with the way we played defensively across the midfield,” Bowen said. “We created some quality chances for ourselves that we might not have had otherwise.”

A free position goal from Whitten then made it 7-0 before Thornton’s Audrey Puleio was able to temporality stem the onslaught, thanks to a nice pass from Carly McKenna for the Trojans’ first goal nearly 20 minutes in.

But Gilman and Pike finished the half with scores as Massabesic went in up 9-1 at half. Alexis Foglio, Whitten and Everett all scored goals early in the second to put the Mustangs on top 12-1 before McKenna scored Thornton’s second goal in the final minute to make it a 12-2 final.

 “I’ll tell you, what happened today is disturbing to me as a coach,” Agreste said. “The lack of effort all the way through the game – we’ve got a lot of work to do, that’s for certain.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 323.