After again sneaking past North Yarmouth Academy in the WMC qualifier just to make it to the state team tournament, St. Dom’s left little doubt about who the best team is in Class golf – again.

Greg Labonte, who’s earned a reputation for big rounds in key situations in recent years, did it again Saturday, posting a team-low 77 at Natanis in Vassalboron to lead the Saints back to the title.

“He’s been playing really well lately,” St. Dom’s coach Kevin Cullen said. “Still, we were a bit surprised.”

Chris Bryant followed Labonte up with a career-low 79, including a birdie on the final hole, and Richard Paradis posted an 83. Dylan Rodrigue was the fourth Saints golfer on the board, posting an 88.

Cullen attributes his team’s success to its work ethic.

“We practiced six days a week, four hours a day for almost eight weeks,” Cullen said. “Wind, rain, it didn’t matter, and that’s one of the biggest reasons we were able to win our conference tournament and get here, and why we were able to win here, as well.”

Still Pushing On

The Oxford Hills girls’ won its first game of the season Thursday, a 2-1 win over Leavitt. The Vikings were hoping to improve upon last yeear’s four wins and loss in the Eastern A prelims, but injuries altered that plan. In the first few weeks of play, the Vikings lost six regulars from the lineup, leaving the team with just 12 players from the original roster. Coach Joe Cormier was forced to go to his “September callups” to fill an already young team. Oxford Hills has worked hard and battled the odds against a tough schedule. Cormier says it is a credit to his girls for their persistence. They haven’t gotten down or given up. Instead, they’ve worked harder.

Heather Knights and Caitlyn Hanley each had goals to lead the Vikings to their first win of the season.

Glad to be back

Mountain Valley coach Kris Tyler has liked what she’s seen of her Falcons this week. After missing the better part of three weeks, Tyler was thrilled to be back on the sidelines. Tyler expected to miss some time after giving birth to a son last month, but it turned out to be a longer absence than expected.

“It’s been hard,” said Tyler. “I’ve been wanting to be back. I had some complication with my pregnancy. So I wasn’t back as soon as I wanted to be. I’m excited to be back. I’m sad that I missed a chunk of the season.”

The Falcons tied Dirigo 1-1 Wednesday and stalemated Monmouth 0-0 Friday making them 1-5-6. After losing 14 seniors, Tyler sees her club improving and gaining confidence with each game. Their worst loss was a 5-0 defeat against Mt. Abram, but the Falcons produced a determined effort and worked hard against one of Western C’s best.

“I feel like we’re playing with the conference right now,” said Tyler. “We haven’t had a lot of wins in our favor. We’ve had a lot of ties, but we haven’t had a lot of blowouts.”

Filling out the ranks

The rest of the St. Dom’s boys’ hockey coaching staff is filled, AD Lee Hixon announced this week.

Robert Deblois will assume junior varsity duties, replacing new head coach Steve Ouellette in that capacity. Joe Mynahan, who was a coach at Lewiston in recent years, will be a varsity assistant, and St. Dom’s alumnus John Racine returns as the team’s goaltending coach.

The sting

Looks like the Leavitt field hockey team knows how to slam the door.

The Hornets went 3-0 against the heart of their KVAC Class B schedule last week, improving to 11-1-1 and giving themselves a shot at the top seed in the West region.

Leavitt merely won at Belfast and Waterville – the two schools responsible for the last four Class B championships – and avenged its loss to Maranacook in last year’s regional championship game.

Oh, what a relief it is

Three ties might add up to a win-and-a-half in Heal Point terminology. They don’t replace the exultation of an actual victory, however.

After knocking on the door all season, Gray-New Gloucester finally kicked it in Thursday with a 2-1 Western Maine Conference field hockey victory over Wells.

G-NG has been vastly improved over its 1-13 edition of 2007. Aside from the three deadlocks, however, the Patriots had precious little to show for that progress. Laura Hagelin took care of that business with her game-winning goal against the Warriors.

Kayla Guptill, one of only four returning seniors this season, also scored for Gray-NG.

Homers

It was hard for the Mt. Abram girls not to look past opponents this week in anticipation of Friday’s showdown with fellow unbeaten Georges Valley. The Roadrunners and Bucs were the two top-ranked teams in Western C respectively. Still, the Roadrunners made sure they were taking care of business.

“These are all big games,” said forward Maria Parrett. “We need to focus on each game at a time.”

One of the reasons all the games are important for the Roadrunners is because Mt. Abram is determined to secure home field advantage in the playoffs. A home game in Salem makes for a lengthy trip for most playoff foes. It is a journey the Roadrunners have made too many times the other way in previous years.

“That was one of the tings we set as a goal,” said coach Marc Keller. “We want to get homefield advantage. We want to be here for the playoffs. We’ve travelled so much and gone South so many times. We’ve lost in Yarmouth and lost in Portland and lost wherever. We wanted to be here and if we keep playing well that will happen.”

Mt. Abram took a significant step in that direction with a 2-1 win over Georges Valley Friday on goals by Katitie Buschman and Emma James.

Eddies live to tell

Not many playoff-bound field hockey teams allow 13 total goals in a season. Imagine the stigma of hearing the thump in the back of the cage that many times in a single afternoon.

When Edward Little dropped to 2-4-2 with an agonizing 13-1 loss to seven-time defending Class A champion Skowhegan, it would have been easy for the defeat to have a lingering effect that soured the Red Eddies’ season.

Instead, EL took the common sense approach and realized that the staggering score was less a reflection of itself than an unsinkable opponent.

“We came back and played very well against Mt. Blue,” said EL coach Greg Perkins, referencing a 1-0 victory that shifted his team back into gear.

The Red Eddies also rolled through Morse, Lewiston and Brunswick, erupting for four goals in each game.

KVAC teams that are able to pick on people their own size typically turn out OK. Skowhegan, Gardiner, Cony and Messalonskee continue to hold sway over the Class A division. The Big Four entered last week with a combined record of 38-4.

“We lost to the top four teams,” Perkins said. “If we can be consistent, we’re going to be alright.”

Emily Ranucci leads the balanced Eddies with six goals. Diana Kruszewski and Miranda Martin have scored five each, followed by Josie Lahey with four. Karen Leary, Katie Williamson and Jess Campbell also have connected for EL this season.

Mt. Blue, EL and Bangor are jockeying for the fifth through seventh spots in Eastern Class A Heal Points. Whoever slips to No. 7 will be forced to host a preliminary game. Falling to No. 8 would virtually assure a quarterfinal date with Skowhegan.

There’s no ideal road trip for the quarterfinal round, but EL did represent itself well in a 2-1 loss to Messalonskee.

“I think if we keep winning, unless some other people upset people, we should hang in at No. 5 or 6,” said Perkins. “Anything can happen. You’ve just got to play tough all the time.”