TURNER — There wasn’t a breath of wind on the air for most of the afternoon Thursday in Turner, but when Leavitt finally scored a goal, the collective sigh of the Leavitt faithful, players and coaching staff was palpable.

After dominating the first half with nothing to show for it on the scoreboard, Amanda Jordan stepped in from the midfield and came to the Hornets’ rescue, drilling home a goal with 18:59 to play in the game to lift Leavitt to a pivotal 1-0 KVAC field hockey victory over a pesky Waterville squad.

“It was frustrating,” Leavitt coach Wanda Ward-McLean said. “We were pressuring them well, but we kept hitting the ball to our own feet and kicking it. It was good to get the goal when we did.”

Jordan had been playing more of a support role for most of the game. A key piece of the transition on both offense and defense, scoring goals isn’t necessarily what she does often.

But it was Thursday.

“We noticed the goalie had been coming out to play the ball more,” Jordan said. “I cut to the ball. I was in the midfield, and saw the ball coming, so I tried to get to it before the goalie did and shot it to the outside, because she was already coming out after it.”

Stellar for the rest of the game, Waterville keeper Sadie Dixon (13 saves) just missed Jordan’s shot as she dove back to her left, and the ball rattled the cage behind her.

“I aimed for that corner, and it went,” Jordan said.

Picking corners has been something Ward-McLean has been stressing to the young Hornets, who play just two seniors on a regular basis, and have ridden youth to a 6-1 record this season.

“We did this the other day at Erskine, too, we had 29 shots,” Ward-McLean said. “Unfortunately, a lot of them have been right at the goalie. We’ve been working with the kids on going around the goalie, but this girl came out and challenged them. It took a while to adjust.”

It took the Purple Panthers a half to adjust to Leavitt’s attack, too. Leavitt outshot Waterville 15-1 in the opening frame, and the one Waterville shot didn’t make it on net.

“I think the first ten minutes especially, we were just running around chasing the ball,” Waterville coach Amie Wilcox said. “Then we kind of got organized after a timeout.”

In the first half, Dixon was stellar, stopping all nine Leavitt shots that otherwise would have counted as goals.

In the second half, The Panthers adjusted.

“We changed some players around and we had a talk about coming out in the second half and put pressure on them, because they did that to us in the first half,” Wilcox said.

But it was Leavitt, despite a deficit of 7-2 in penalty corners, that earned the winner on Jordan’s drive.

Then, it was up to the defense, led on the strong side by Kayla Royer.

“We try to cut off the passes, sure, but we also trust our teammates,” Royer said. “You have to trust your teammates, know that if you miss it, they have your back. The goaltender, too.”

Lonely for most of the first half, Taylor Eels stopped all three shots that came her way in the second, and forced another handful wide with her aggressive play.

“From the goalies I’ve seen so far this year in our league, she’s been the best this year,” Ward-McLean said.