BETHEL – What wild, wacky, intertwined, entertaining lives Mountain Valley Conference field hockey teams lead.

Telstar struck a blow for normalcy Wednesday afternoon, rallying for two goals in a four-minute span of the second half to slip past Livermore Falls, 2-1.

That plot twist unfolded only two days after the Rebels and Andies were involved separately in the end of the league’s last two spotless streaks. In the hours that followed Telstar’s loss Monday at Lisbon, Livermore Falls protected its home field and knocked off rival Jay under the lights.

“I don’t think anyone’s undefeated anymore, which is nice,” said Telstar senior Whitney Mills. “It’s fun to be on the same playing level. We come out here every game looking to win regardless of who it is.”

Still struggling to regain its footing after Livermore Falls’ Kathryn Ventrella scored at 5:39 of the second half, Telstar (6-1) took less than a minute to restore its reigning regional championship mystique.

Mills, the league’s leading scorer, redirected a sharp centering pass from Lindsay James at 6:38.

Sophomore Jamie Steven notched the game-winner at 10:15, unleashing a slow roller from the edge of the circle that caught a piece of Livermore Falls goalkeeper Caylee Morris’ equipment and kept rolling perilously inside the far post.

“There’s just a few things that got them down, like scoring first and having Telstar come right back,” said Livermore Falls coach Julia Parker. “Telstar’s always a strong team. Coming off a loss, I think they were even tougher.”

Mills agreed that the suddenly familiar feeling of being on the wrong side of the scoreboard grew old to the Rebels quickly.

“Once they get a goal, you want to come right back at them,” said the co-captain. “We didn’t want them to do that to us. It’s all about intensity, about getting the team going and using our legs.”

That flurry of activity in front of the cage followed a first half in which the Rebels and Andies combined for only nine shots on goal. Brittney Souther and Kathryn Lake led a sterling defensive effort against Mills, while James and Sam Largess helped Telstar control the midfield and nullify Livermore Falls’ early advantage.

Its roster dominated by juniors and sophomores, Telstar is gradually overcoming its paradoxical tendencies to exercise too much patience and too much finesse.

“We just talked about stop using reverse stick, send the ball through and go for it,” said Telstar coach Gail Wight. “When you’re down, you’ve really got to put the ball on the cage. It’s hard to do anything fancy when the clock’s ticking on you. Sometimes it’s almost like they play a little too cautious. Sometimes you’ve just got to send it.”

Livermore Falls (4-3) couldn’t use any of its five second-half penalty corners to weave the equalizer. On paper, though, the end result was a marked improvement over a 4-0 loss Sept. 10 to the Rebels.

“I think we played them well the first game. We just had 15 minutes of the game last time that were down for us,” Parker said. “Today was a good effort by a lot of people. There’s some things we could have capitalized on, and it just didn’t happen.”

Morris made nine saves for Livermore Falls. Bri Douglass, the only other multi-year starter besides Mills in the Telstar lineup, made five stops.

“Not picking on our conference, but they need games like this,” Wight said. “That’s what’s going to make or break us. These games where you score seven or eight goals, you lose your intensity.”