BATH

On Monday night, members of the Morse High School girls lacrosse team held a film study. Seniors like Paige Daigle, Noa Sreden and Amanda Gagne watched game film from this season and focused on what teammates were doing when they didn’t have the ball, as well as what they should be doing without the ball. The goal, according to Morse cocoach Linda Levesque, was to get the team working more as a symphony — as one.

In Tuesday’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference clash with visiting Winslow, the film study paid off and it paid off quickly. The Shipbuilders exploded out of the gates, scoring four goals in the opening four minutes on the way to a dominant 15-4 win.

Quite the confidence booster.

“For confidence of the team, to believe in each other and also believe and trust their coaches,” Levesque said. “The things that we’ve been trying to do worked today.”

Morse (3-1) won the opening draw control and charged down the field. With a mere 16 seconds off the clock, Karen Yurek dished the ball off to Emily Martin, who fired it in to make it 1-0. On the next draw control, 22 seconds later, Daigle hit Gagne for an open look right in front of the cage for another goal.

Yurek punched in a third at 23:55 and then less than a minute later, she scored again to make it 4-0. Four shots, four goals and just about the best start possible.

“We just stepped on knowing we can’t be a second-half team,” Daigle said. “We have to start it off good in the first half and I think we did a good job doing that.”

“One of the last messages out of the huddle coming from one of the captains was ‘Let’s get out to a fast start. Let’s not wait,’” Levesque said.

Winslow (0-3) settled in a bit after that, but there were plenty more Morse goals on the way. Sreden, sandwiched in-between two goals from Daigle, scored on a free-position attempt at 16:14 and Martin notched her second at 14:29 to start the running clock. Isabella Monbouquette came off the bench and capped off the first-half scoring for the Shipbuilders, who fired 15 shots in the frame and took an 11-1 lead into the break.

“We moved the ball a lot better,” Levesque said. “That was huge. We got everybody involved on the offense. We started using behind the net more, which was important.”

“Today, we were spreading the field a lot,” Daigle said. “We were looking to switch fields, which was really good. We haven’t done that in the past. Once we get it towards the goal, we try to set up behind-the-goal plays and really get the ball moving and not just running it in from one person. Becoming a team and using each other.”

Late charge

Winslow finally got on the board at the end of the first half via Hailey Grenier, but watched Morse add four more to the stat sheet to open the second. Sreden, on a dish from Daigle, completed her hat trick five minutes in and then assisted Monbouquette four minutes later. Emma Warner darted toward the cage and bounced one in to make it 14-1 at 12:39 before Sreden capped the scoring from another free position.

Then, suddenly, Winslow came to life. Sarah Steven took on multiple Morse defenders and converted on an ensuing free-position take to double the Black Raiders’ tally. A minute-and-a-half later, Savannah Joler took it in herself and finished to make it three. Grenier scored one more time with 6:52 to play, and the last goal of the game was called back for a foul.

“They played harder than we did on those last three goals,” Levesque said of Winslow. “They were semibreakaways. You always give the other team credit for playing hard until the very end and coming up with some goals. They’re a relatively new squad and they played hard, trying to do the right stuff.”

“I think we got tired and we just rushed it a little bit,” Daigle said. “We were trying to rush the goals and get as many as we can.”

Winslow took seven of its 12 total shots in the frame and forced two saves of Morse’s Sophie Wilson, who came in after 25 minutes for starter Zenaide McCarthy (three saves).

As comfortable as it was, Levesque said there was plenty to take away from the win. Who knows what will show up on film.

“We always have confidence, but I think that we always make ourselves do better based on the game,” Daigle said. “If we are doing really good, we’re going to practice in the game and really use this game to move forward and make ourselves better.”

Morse 15, Winslow 4

At McMann Field in Bath

Goals —(W) Hailey Grenier 2, Sarah Stevens, Savannah Joler; (Mo) Emily Martin 2, Amanda Gagne 2, Karen Yuerk 2, Paige Daigle 2, Noa Sreden 4, Isabella Monbouquette 2, Emma Warner. Assists — (W) Silver Chukey 2; (Mo) Karen Yurek, Paige Daigle 2, Amanda Gagne 3, Noa Sreden 2, Emma Warner. Shots — Morse 26, Winslow 12. Saves — (W) Carrie Selwood 11; (Mo) Zenaide McCarthy 3, Sophie Wilson 2. Draw controls — Morse 15, Winslow 6. Records — Morse 3-1, Winslow 0-3. Up next for the Shipbuilders — Thursday at Gardiner/Hall Dale, 4 p.m.