WATERBORO — “Play to the whistle.”

It’s an oft-repeated, sometimes-heeded refrain from coach to player at every level of sport.

Jackie Guillemette didn’t stop until she heard the shrill sound of a ref’s breath on Thursday afternoon, and the Massabesic field hockey team was rewarded with its biggest win of the season as a result.

Guillemette scored the only goal of a 1-0 victory over Cheverus with 19:27 to play in the first half, when she hacked the ball over the goal line from close range in the middle of a huge scrum of Stags defenders.

The ball had looked to have already gone in on Logan Provencher’s shot, but bounced right back out. Not hearing the whistle, Guillemette kept playing even with some of her teammates already celebrating, poking the ball past goalie Libby DesRuisseaux and over the line once and for all.

“It was moving around between the goalie’s pads and the defense and we weren’t sure if it crossed the line or not, and it popped back out,” Guillemette said of the play. “We were waiting and I think the ref just didn’t have a good enough angle, so to make sure, I hit it and then they called it in.”

The win moved the Mustangs to 8-1 on season and vaulted them past Cheverus (6-2) and into second place in the Western Class A Heal Point standings, behind only Scarborough.

“We’d never beaten them. This group of kids had never beaten Cheverus,” Massabesic coach Michele-Martin Moore said. “There’s always that little seed of doubt that you just need to slam the door on. That little voice of doubt just needs to be shut up, and I think this (win) did that.”

Guillemette’s goal came in the midst of a high-energy opening half that saw 18 total shots on goal – 10 of them from Cheverus – and several big saves by both goalkeepers.

Cheverus looked to have tied the game up just 45 seconds into the second half as Elyse Caiazzo’s driven shot bounced off of Mustangs keeper Abby Greenleaf’s pads, going over her head and in.

But the goal was disallowed by a controversial high-stick call that had Stags coach Amy McMullin seething.

“We’ve had our share of bad bounces this year,” Martin-Moore said. “That was a good one.”

The Mustangs then took control for the next 20 minutes, controlling play and keeping Cheverus pinned in its own center circle thanks to a dominating defensive effort from midfielders Bailey Ohman, Alexis Foglio and Alex and Abby Staples.

“They just layered so nicely today,” Martin-Moore said of her midfield, which consistently caused turnovers when Cheverus tried to break out of its zone.

“We’ve been working on that in practice, that’s been one of the keys of the past week. If it gets by that girl, there needs to be someone behind her so you don’t need to turn your body and obstruct.”

Cheverus did have one more spell in the Mustangs’ zone with 10 minutes to play, earning four penalty corners in a two-minute period.

The stretch ended with the Stags’ best and final chance of the half when Meredith Willard received a pass that sent her in alone on Greenleaf. But the goalie broke off her line early and smothered Willard’s shot to end the threat.

“When she had the breakaway, coach always tells me not to get back in the goal because it gives them more space,” Greenleaf said. “I knew I had to go out and get it. I went out and did my leg-swipe thing and got it, and the defense cleared it.”

In total, the Mustangs outshot the Stags 8-3 over the final 30 minutes, also winning the corners battle 10-4.

Martin-Moore partially credited her teams’ resurgence after the disallowed goal to an unusual place – the McAuley Lions, a team that lost to Massabesic 12-0 on Tuesday but taught the Mustangs a valuable lesson all the same.

“The one thing we learned from the McAuley team was they never let anything bother them,” Martin-Moore said. “They’re losing by big margins, and they’re out there enjoying the game, playing hard. If something went against them, they kept on playing and didn’t get frustrated with each other.

“That’s what we learned, that we’re too skilled to let things bother us. And that’s what we did in this game.”

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