SOUTH PARIS — The start of Tuedsay night’s KVAC field hockey tilt between Morse and Oxford Hills had a bit of a surreal feel to it. Almost, as one Viking put it, like a movie.

The movie had a happy ending for the Vikings, as a first-half downpour led to a relative deluge of goals for Oxford Hills.

Jess Gauthier scored 2:35 into the game as the Vikings avenged an overtime loss to Morse last week with a 2-0 triumph on homecoming at Gouin Athletic Complex.

Heather Verrier added a late insurance goal for the Vikings (6-4), who had been shut out in two of their last three games, including the 1-0 loss to the Shipbuilders (2-7), and had rattled the cage just twice in their last four.

“For some reason, we were thinking of it as a movie, and we even had the music for it,” Verrier said. “We just got hyped up and we were ready to play. Getting up early was a pretty big deal, but we just kept playing like we do.”

“It was really nice that we scored in the first three minutes because I wasn’t really sure we were going to go beyond a half,” Oxford Hills coach Cindy Goddard said. “Last game we lost to them in overtime, so it was nice to at least know that you had a goal in the first half, because you never know.”

The skies opened up virtually from the moment the game started.  Gauthier, a junior, wasted no time aiming for the far post to beat Morse goalie Alejandra Rodriguez, who had pitched two straight shutouts.

“I was on the far corner of the right side, so I just shot for the left corner and it went in,” Gauthier said. “(The rain) really pumped me up because I knew I had to play harder and push myself because it was really slippery.”

“We just didn’t seem to come out strong in the first half. It took awhile for us to get warmed up,” said Morse coach Amanda Shorey. “It had a little bit with us being out of our routine, and with the weather and starting early, it kind of threw us off.”

Oxford Hills controlled the first half, keeping the ball in its offensive end for well over 20 minutes. But the slippery conditions still made Goddard nervous that a sudden change in momentum was possible, if not likely.

“We dominated most of the game, but you never know, especially in these kind of conditions, somebody slips and falls and, boom, they’re down there, and sometimes it’s hard for the goalies because you don’t always get to practice in wet conditions and it can take an extra skip,” Goddard said. “It was really nice when we got the second goal just to have some breathing room.”

The rain halted at halftime and Morse was able to put a little more pressure on the Vikings’ Mariah Kimball, particularly in the final 10 minutes. But Verrier provided the breathing room by staking out the left post and banging home a pass across the circle from Ebony Mills with 5:57 remaining. 

“We need to win a couple of more games to ensure a playoff spot. The six, seven and eight spots are going to go to whoever bumps it out here down the stretch,” said Goddard, whose team’s remaining schedule includes some of their prime competition for playoff spots — Messalonskee, Brewer, Lewiston and Edward Little. “We’re all kind of playing each other, so it’s going to be whoever gets the wins at the end.”