SANFORD — With six sophomores and a freshman in its starting lineup, on paper the Sanford girls soccer team certainly looks like a team built for the future.

On Wednesday night, the Spartans showed they’re plenty capable of good things in the present as well.

Vanessa Hodge showed off a well-rounded skill set by scoring four times in a variety of ways, her follow sophomores Lily Denham and Summer Camire added a goal each, and Laura Kirkpatrick sent a crucial header into the back of the net just before halftime as Sanford cruised past rival Massabesic 7-3 in a high-scoring SMAA affair at Cobb Stadium.

The game served as a bit of an offensive explosion for the youthful Spartans (2-2) ”“ Hodge’s four goals were one more than they had scored in their three previous games combined.

“I don’t think I’ve ever scored four goals in any game, not that I can remember,” said Hodge, who scored twice in each half. “But I had plenty of confidence and was feeling pretty good about it in this game.”

Sanford coach Kendra Brown credited the goal output to a team mentality in attack when pushing forward.

“Seven goals, that’s not bad,” Brown said. “I think this was just a testament to the girls playing together. Vanessa had a great game, but there are others who are adding to that. I’ve been hounding them that one person is not going to be the team, and we’ve had a team focus. They look for the open player, and that makes us more dangerous, having multiple scorers instead of just one.

“They’re connecting things together and not being selfish, and that’s resulting in goals.”

There were lots of those on Wednesday, starting just 6:44 in when a ball from the midfield found Hodge streaking into the box. Taking her time, Hodge waited for Mustangs (2-2) goalie Hannah Lundrigan to leave her line and start to come out of the net before firing a shot high into the upper-right corner of the net.

Hodge then made it 2-0 midway through the half, this time on a free kick just outside of the Mustangs box. Taking it quickly before the Massabesic wall had time to set itself, Hodge struck the ball strongly and sent it just under the cross bar, with Lundrigan getting just enough of a hand on it to send the ball into the top of the net.

“I’d never taken a free kick in high school, and I didn’t think too much about it,” Hodge said. “I just saw that it needed to be done quickly. I saw the positioning of the goalie and just hit it.”

The free kick had been awarded as a result of a dubious handball call, just one of several officiating decisions that left Massabesic coach Kevin St. Jarre bemused.

“The goals that weren’t a direct result of a bad call were easy to swallow, but there were a lot of goals that weren’t that way,” St. Jarre said. “There were no hands in that hand ball, and there were so many things like that. It’s frustrating, but Sanford would have beaten us even without these officials.”

Sanford had plenty of other chances to up the lead even more in the first 30 minutes, with Lundrigan forced to make a pair of fine saves on close-range efforts by Hodge and Rachel Fink, while shots by Kirkpatrick and Kristen O’Connell careened off the post.

But completely against the run of play, Massabesic scored with 10:10 left in the half thanks to a Sanford defensive mistake. With a throw-in near the touchline on the left side, the Mustangs’ Kailey Daigle whipped the ball toward the near post, where Sanford goalie Kyla Bragg was caught in a tangle with a teammate and a Mustang. The ball got through all three and fell to Haley Bantz alone at the back post for an easy tap-in.

The goal galvanized the Mustangs, who went on to have their best spell of the game before Sanford hit back with a swift strike right before the half, again off a throw-in.

With the ball finding the feet of midfielder Abby Brown on the right side, she turned and fired a cross into the box. Running off her defender, Kirkpatrick found space in the middle of the box and hit a header back across the goal, leaving Lundrigan no chance and restoring the Spartans’ two-goal lead with 13.6 seconds left before half.

“That was a huge momentum swing,” Brown said. “We had the two goals, but our midfield and defense was back on their heels. We had to settle the ball down and get possession, and in doing so, that got us that third goal.”

“That goal just reassured us, and set the tone for the second half,” added Hodge.

Hodge upped the advantage with two more goals in the opening 20 minutes after the break, coolly finishing past Lundrigan off a through ball from Lauren Fink and then powering a hard shot from near the penalty area into the bottom right corner to make things 5-1 and all but end any Massabesic comeback hopes.

Goals from Denham and Camire canceled out strikes from the Mustangs’ Natasha Silva and Kym Hendrix in the final 18 minutes, and just four games into the season, the Spartans moved to within one win of last year’s season total of three.

“Last year, they were still just kind of getting their feet wet and learning how to play varsity against older girls,” Brown said. “But now they’ve gotten the jitters out, and they’re more confident, and they’re ready to attack.”

“Because we are such a young team, you can see us getting better gradually,” said Hodge. “A lot of us have been playing together for years now, so game by game now we’re pretty confident that we’re getting better and better as a team.”

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