SOUTH PARIS – The season has been filled with injuries, inexperience, disappointment, and frustration.

Thursday, the Oxford Hills girls’ soccer team finally got a little reward.

“It has been a long year with the injuries,” said Oxford Hills coach Joe Cormier, whose team lost six regulars early on, leaving just 12 players from the original roster. “It’s been long for the girls. They haven’t given up faith. They’ve worked their tails off and shown a lot of heart this year. With everything that we’ve gone through, it was good for them to feel some of the fruits of their labor.”

The Vikings got goals from Heather Knights and Caitlyn Hanley to earn their first win of the season, a 2-1 victory over Leavitt.

“It feels great,” said Hanley, a junior midfielder. “We’ve been working really hard all season. It hasn’t really showed in our games until now. Now we’ve got something to show for it.”

Leavitt (1-11) played a fine game and pressured the Vikings (1-10) for much of the contest. The Hornets got a Kassara Varney goal late in regulation in an attempt to rally.

“We’ve struggled all season long either getting chances or finishing good looks,” said Leavitt coach Chris Cifelli. “It’s the mark of a young team. We graduated 11 seniors last year. I’m pleased with the fact that we’re getting high percentage shots at times.”

Though Leavitt outshot the Vikings 9-4 in the first half and controlled play most of the half, Oxford Hills had the best scoring bid. A penalty shot was awarded when Hornet goalie Danielle DuBois had a late slide tackle on Mady Littlefield. Lauren Brett took the penalty kick but hit the crossbar.

After a scoreless first half, the Vikings struck quickly after the intermission. With DuBois caught out of the net, Knights intercepted a clear and had an open goal.

“I was like all excited,” said the junior forward. “I knew it was going to go in.

“I was in the middle and the ball rolled through. The goalie came out of the goal and misread it and I shot it.”

That was at 4:26 and just 1:01 later, the Vikings scored again. Littlefield crossed the ball from the left side. Brett redirected it off the right post. The ball bounced around and hit DuBois, a defender and Hanley in the goalmouth.

“I just went right for the ball and tried to get some body part on it and push it in that direction,” said Hanley. “I got my head on it, and I think it hit a couple other people.”

The Hornets tried to rally and produced continuous pressure. Paige Landry and Jamie Truchon had bids from the right side, and Kendra Ray had a shot from the front that went over the net. Oxford Hills keeper Breanna Martin was solid in net with 10 saves while the defense allowed little in the way of quality opportunities.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Knights. “It feels good to win and hopefully, we can build off this one.”

Leavitt got its goal from Varney on a direct kick with 10:48 left. She had another dead ball and curled the shot just wide left in the final minute.

“They didn’t back down,” said Cifelli. “They still believed they could do it, but it was a big of a whole to get out of.”