BATH

The Morse High School girls soccer team showed several glimpses of brilliance in its Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference opener against Camden Hills on Saturday at sun-drenched McMann Field.

Miracle Trimble, Bess Howell, Brianna Williams, Sophie Sreden and several others created opportunity after opportunity, outshooting the visiting Windjammers 19-15.

But, Camden Hills took full advantage of the times when the Shipbuilders were not at their best, scoring three consecutive goals before holding on for a 3-2 Class B victory.

Trimble scored the first goal of the contest and the final one, outracing Camden Hills (1-0) 6-foot-1 goaltender Rachel Pease to the ball and dribbling all the way to the cage to get Morse (0-1) to within one goal with 14:34 remaining.

Down the stretch, Morse had its chances to tie the game, including Trimble digging the ball away from Pease and firing a shot toward the vacated net, only to see Camden Hills defender Kristina Alex deflect the ball out of danger.

“We did some pretty good combos and throughballs,” said Trimble. “The more we work together, the more we will accomplish. We realize it will be hard to score goals at times after losing players like Tori Field and Katie Henrikson to graduation. You just don’t fill shoes like theirs.”

“The skill is there, but the consistency isn’t, and the difference between last year and this year is we’re not finishing,” said Morse coach Steve Boyce, whose squad is slated to return to action on Wednesday at Maranacook.

Morse behind

“I thought the first half we had everything working well, except that we were not scoring,” said Boyce, who watched his team fall behind 2-1 at the break despite an 11-7 edge in shots.

Trimble’s first goal came with 15:20 remaining in the first half. Pease momentarily lost control of the ball, with Trimble chipping the ball free and finding the back of the net for a 1-0 Morse lead.

Camden Hills struck right back, getting the tying goal just three minutes later. Alex sent a corner kick toward the Shipbuilder goal, with Caroline Matteo getting her toe on the ball.

The Windjammers took over during the final 10 minutes of the half. Morse goaltender Sadia Crosby (nine saves) stopped Alex on a direct kick from 20 yards out, but wasn’t as fortunate on Camden’s next chance. A bad bounce allowed Cailand Sweeting to break behind the Morse defense. She made one move to get Crosby on the ground and rolled the ball into the cage with 41 seconds remaining in the half.

“We just suddenly shut down and let them control everything, from getting to balls in the air to dictating what we were doing,” said Boyce, who worked at halftime to get his team past the adversity and refocus. “We have a lot of young kids who had rarely experienced being behind, and I told their coach our success will come from how our kids deal with adversity. Today was a test and gave us a sense of what we need to work on.”

“It’s was so frustrating being behind because we controlled the first half, but today just wasn’t our day and we will come back and play stronger next time,” said Trimble.

Camden upped its lead to 3- 1 when Addie Drinkwater’s shot deflected off the Morse defense and past a crossed-up Crosby, who robbed Sweeting moments later to give her team a chance to come back.

But, shots by Paige Martin and Williams sailed high of the Camden Hills cage, allowing the Windjammers to come away with the victory.

Pease turned away eight shots for the Windjammers, who held a 5-1 edge in corner kicks.

Camden Hills 3,
Morse 2

At McMann Field, Bath
Camden — 2 1 — 3
Morse — 1 1 — 2
Goals — (CH) Caroline Matteo, Cailand
Sweeting, Addie Drinkwater; (Mo) Miracle
Trimble 2.
Assists — (CH) Kristina Alex.
Shots — Morse, 19-15.
Saves — (CH) Rachel Pease 8; (Mo)
Sadia Crosby 9.
Corner kicks — Camden Hills, 5-1.
Records — Camden Hills 1-0, Morse 0-1.
Next for the Shipbuilders — Wednesday
at Maranacook, 3:30 p.m.