AUBURN – When your school is the defending regional field hockey champion and has aced at least one playoff game every autumn since you were a fifth-grader, there’s an understandable sense of entitlement at this time of year.

St. Dominic Regional High School graduated only three seniors after winning the Western Class C championship for the second time in four years and narrowly losing to Central High of East Corinth in the state final. But the Saints admit their talent probably outweighed their hunger for a while.

“It humbled us,” senior midfielder and tri-captain Katie Landry said of St. Dom’s string of regular-season losses to Western Maine Conference rivals Sacopee Valley, Freeport and North Yarmouth Academy. “We may have come into this season expecting to be there again just because we were in (the state game) last year. I actually think that we took those losses and worked through them and made it work for us.”

Like football’s Indianapolis Colts, who entered last year’s NFL playoffs appearing vulnerable before claiming the Super Bowl championship that eluded them for so long, St. Dom’s plans to make the most of its absence from the radar screen as this year’s regional quarterfinals begin.

Undefeated at home, No. 4 St. Dom’s (10-3) hosts No. 5 Freeport on Wednesday. With a win there, the Saints likely would set up a Saturday trip to top-ranked and undefeated Telstar.

“We’ve had our good days and our bad days,” said St. Dom’s coach Brian Kay. “Of course, everyone wants to go undefeated. We’ve done that before and lost at the end. Now they know the feeling of losing. In a way, that’s a good thing, because they know they have to work harder.”

St. Dom’s also captured a regional crown in 2003 after losing in the two preceding Western finals. Kay guided the Saints to the semifinals in ’04 and ’05.

Most of those teams breezed through the regular season with few challenges on the strength of explosive scorers such as the Dorso sisters, Erica and Elisha, and the coach’s daughter, Sarah Kay. Sometimes that easy road left the Saints vulnerable to the likes of Telstar, Hall-Dale or Livermore Falls at tourney time.

Now, the name emblazoned across their black-and-white jerseys is the equivalent of a bull’s-eye from the first stroke of September. It’s a status that can be a curse during conference play but might be a blessing in the second season.

“A lot of teams have come out especially in the playoffs and played their hardest against us. This has been a totally different season, where everybody’s come out and you don’t know what to expect from day one,” said junior forward Mary Lewis, also a captain. “So you just keep working hard and see how other teams mold. Once the playoffs come, it’s a totally different season, and you don’t know how anyone’s going to play.”

Lewis (20 goals) leads a team that is perhaps better balanced from end-to-end than ever. Colleen Rideout has added 15 goals. The two juniors frequently take advantage of Landry’s crisp, pinpoint passing from the midfield.

With eight shutouts, three-year starter Austyn Carolin gives St. Dom’s the rock every team needs in its cage during the postseason.

“My whole front line is three juniors and a sophomore. A year makes a big difference. We’re scoring more goals this year,” Kay said. “We also have five seniors who are all very good. They’ve been to the big dance. They can say, ‘This is what we do to get back there.'”

While the Saints don’t tolerate excuses, two of their three losses were full of what-ifs. Sacopee Valley avenged an early-season loss, 1-0, even though the Saints enjoyed a 20-4 advantage in shots on goal.

St. Dom’s also dropped a 2-0 decision to Freeport after making the bus trip and being ready to play the previous day, only to have no officials show up due to a scheduling conflict.

A postponed game against Waynflete was never rescheduled, costing valuable Heal Points and a crack at the third seed.

“I kind of feel like it takes a lot of pressure off,” Rideout said of the lower ranking. “We have a clean slate because we did lose a few games. I think there is less attention on us now that we’re not No. 1.”

The Saints know that being No. 1 had its privileges, though. Getting back to the state final likely would mean two road wins.

“We can’t just expect to get it,” Landry said. “We need to keep working for it, and I think we’ve done a good job of that.”