NORTH BERWICK — After an emotional, dramatic, 3-2 overtime victory over rival Massabesic in its season-opener last Thursday, the Sanford field hockey team easily could have had a letdown in its road-opener against Noble on Monday.

But from the opening minutes, it was clear the Knights wouldn’t be so lucky.

Liz Helmreich scored the first of her four goals just three minutes in, and Sanford controlled field position throughout the game, recording three goals on either side of halftime on the way to a comfortable 6-0 win in an SMAA game at Noble High School.

Sanford was dominant throughout, putting 24 shots on the Noble goal to the Knights’ one and earning 13 penalty corners to the Knights’ 0. For a young team that is starting only two seniors amid a handful of underclassmen, it’s been just the kind of start to the season Sanford head coach Diana Walker was looking for.

“These kinds of games help as a confidence booster, and these kids are learning how to play with each other a little more,” Walker said. “I got to see a lot of the things that we’ve been practicing as far as the quick passing without dribbling so much.”

Helmreich, a junior who scored six goals a year ago, is now nearly to that number in only two games this season after also scoring the winner against Massabesic. Playing primarily down low on the posts, all four of Helmreich’s goals came on either redirections of shots or tap-ins off of centering passes from teammates.

“She’s been taking the initiative to go after the ball,” Walker said of Helmreich. “She’s shown a lot of direction on the front line.”

“Every goal that I had, the only reason I was able to score was because my teammates were feeding them to me,” said Helmreich. “There were some amazing plays and some amazing assists.”

That was on display early as the Spartans were in the supremacy from the opening moments, scoring just three minutes in when Allison L’Heureux received a pass near the top of the circle and drove a shot on goal. With the shot traveling at pace through the air, Helmreich got her stick on to it and redirected the ball into the side of the net, a goal-scorer’s goal that gave Sanford an early advantage it wouldn’t relinquish.

“The shot popped up, so I had the stick in the middle of my body,” Helmreich said of the goal. “It hit the stick and changed the direction off the side of the goal. That was an amazing shot on goal by Allison.”

Sanford added another goal midway through the half when Katie Johnson’s shot from 10 yards out was saved by Noble goalie Marcie LaRiccia. But the rebound went right back to the stick of Johnson, who flipped it up and over a defender’s stick and into the net. Helmreich then scored with 90 seconds left in the half off a Morgan Champagne centering pass into the box, and it was 3-0 at the break.

“I didn’t want them to coast, so at halftime, I made sure to tell them it was 0-0,” Walker said. “You can’t be content with that, because teams have come back at us like that before. We’ll make the necessary adjustments, but you want them to play hard and to continue to play the game.”

The Spartans did just that as Champagne found the ball in the middle of a scrum and placed her shot past LaRiccia to make it 4-0 with 19:30 to play.

It was 5-0 nine minutes later thanks to another swift Sanford move that cut through the left side of the Noble defense: After playing a give-and-go with Johnson near midfield, Alli Plante streaked down the right sideline toward the end-line, where she stopped and drove a hard pass through the goal mouth, with Helmreich there at the far post to mop up for her hat trick.

“Coach always tells us to keep our stick down as the forward on the post,” Helmreich said. “Katie and Allie made a great play. The goalie was a little bit off, she wasn’t directly lined up with the ball. When Allie put it across there were about eight inches of space, and she sent it directly through there, and all I had to do was put my stick down.”

“Those are the nice ones,” Walker added of the goal. “We were looking up and using somebody down the field instead of just driving the ball down the field or trying to dribble the ball down the field. And then, once we got the ball into the circle, we were concentrating on getting it to the sweet spot, which was nice to see.”

Helmreich could have had another soon after on a penalty shot, only to lift her shot high and wide of the post. But the forward did get her fourth with 90 seconds to play on another opportunistic chance in front of the net as the Spartans ”“ who play fellow 2-0 Portland on Wednesday at Goodall Park ”“ finished off the six-goal rout.

“This was a team effort. We can’t take an opponent as less than what they are. We need to play our game every game, no matter who the opponent is,” Helmreich said.

“This is a really important start, and it really fuels our confidence. We hadn’t beaten Massabesic in six years, and they’re always a great opponent. So to beat them and then to win 6-0, it really gives us confidence that maybe we’re in the upper tier.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.