Mallory Brown and Kayla Mills score three times each for the Rebels.
By Bob McPhee
Staff Writer

BETHEL – Mallory Brown and Kayla Mills each recorded hat tricks as Telstar scored seven unanswered goals en route to a convincing 7-2 win against Lisbon in a Western Maine Class C quarterfinal field hockey matchup Wednesday.

Telstar had broken the game open as Mills (two assists) and Brown scored three goals in a four minute, 29 second span to force the Greyhounds back on their heals. The game was expected to be competitive between the Mountain Valley Conference foes. Telstar had beat Lisbon 1-0 early in the season.

“Telstar played a really good game,” Lisbon coach Mark Stevens said. “Those quick goals put our girls into a defensive mode and they were never able to recover. We couldn’t get our offense going.”

Telstar (10-5) advances to play top-ranked St. Dom’s in a semifinal game on Saturday afternoon in Auburn. Lisbon, meanwhile, concludes its season at 8-6-1.

Lisbon had actually drawn first blood after having advanced the ball into the offensive zone. Junior Emily Poliquin poked a rebound past Rebel goalie Heather Gionet (two saves).

Unfortunately, the Greyhounds didn’t seriously threaten again until the waning minutes of the games.

Mills got the Rebels going by driving in alone on the right wing and scoring unassisted goal.

“Scoring those quick goals gave us a lot of confidence,” Mills said. “Once we got in to (offensive) zone we stayed really aggressive.”

Telstar maintained the pressure and Brown scored twice in 62 seconds against Lisbon goalie Kim Ledbetter (12 saves). Mills assisted both times.

“We just knew that we needed to get things going,” Mills said. “This is the playoffs and we knew it could have been our last game. Our intensity level stayed up throughout the game.”

Lisbon simply could not advance the ball beyond the 50-yard line, as the Rebels disrupted the flow led by sweeper Ashley Stambolis, halfback Santana Wilson, Krystal Gould and Liz Roenberg. Stambolis scored on a Penalty Stroke with 2:02 left in the first half.

Any thoughts of a Greyhound comeback was depleted when Brown scored 47 second into the second half. The Hounds’ Krystal Doughty completed the scoring in the waning moments of the game.