AUBURN — Opportunity knocked Thursday afternoon for the Edward Little High School field hockey team. Resoundingly and agonizingly so.

The Red Eddies probably still heard the echo while finishing their homework last night.  It was so loud that maybe they mistook it for the tribal drum beat on “Survivor,” if that was the evening’s televised entertainment of choice.

Eighteen penalty corners. Nineteen shots on goal. That’s pretty much all you need to know about EL’s 1-0 loss to Mt. Blue in a showdown of mid-pack Eastern Class A and Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference teams with playoff aspirations.

“It’s a matter of finding someone that wants to step up and put the ball in the goal,” said EL coach Greg Perkins. “You can dominate teams all you want, but if you don’t score goals, you aren’t going to win.”

Conversely, Mt. Blue (2-3) basked in only four corners and six shots during a sun-drenched hour at Sherwood Heights. But the Cougars converted their one tailor-made opportunity and rode the resulting wave throughout.

Kaitlyn Bullen connected with 7:35 remaining in the first half.

Jillian Perron flagged down a loose ball in the Cougars’ defensive zone after one of the Red Eddies’ many extended offensive stays. Perron rifled the ball past two EL defenders, and Bullen’s speedy reaction along the near sideline left her one-on-one with Eddies goalkeeper Kayla Cummings.

“I think we got lucky with a lot of their shots going wide,” Bullen said. “We did play well today. Better than we have been. We picked up our intensity.”

Mt. Blue’s young defense came of age around senior goalie Amanda Hall, whose 19 saves were pivotal to the shutout.

But Hall owed just as many kick-outs that didn’t happen to classmate Tori Toothaker and other Cougars blocking shots at the point of attack. In addition to Toothaker and Perron, Jenny Kobischen, Mariah Gaboury, Michaela Yeaton, Liz LeClair and Jess Tyler each disrupted at least one EL foray in the scoring area.

“We still have a lot of work to do in the circle as far as getting the ball wide,” said Mt. Blue coach Jeannine Paradis. “A lot of my kids are fairly young. We’ve had some games we thought we should’ve had at home, so this is really good for our confidence in our first game on the road. This is a tough place to come play.”

The Eddies enjoyed the lion’s share of possession time on their bumpy, familiar home turf. They simply couldn’t connect on any of those troubling corners, or at least half as many long-hit opportunities off the strong sticks of Kayla Nadeau and Hilary Tate.

“I just don’t have that person who wants to put the ball in the cage,” Perkins said. “So until we find that …”

Both teams battled KVAC stalwarts Cony and Messalonskee in the first segment of the season.

EL (2-4) took Messalonskee to overtime and also played well in a loss to Oxford Hills. Those missed opportunities, conjoined with this one, might make a playoff return tough for the Eddies in a season that saw the Maine Principals’ Association whittle the postseason field from two-thirds to one-half.

“This one’s going to come back and haunt us,” predicted Perkins.

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