AUBURN — Edward Little’s stay atop the Eastern Class A standings lasted less than 48 hours.

But even in defeat Saturday, the Eddies’ tilt against nine-time defending Eastern A champion Skowhegan may, in the long run, do more for Edward Little than remaining in that spot.

Nicole Sevey starred offensively for Skowhegan, scoring a pair of goals and adding a key assist on a second-half penalty corner to lead the Indians to a 4-1 victory over Edward Little at Sherwood Heights.

But perhaps more telling than the four goals they scored for the Indians was the fact that they allowed a goal at all, and for a stretch of the first half, EL was clearly the better team.

“The girls should at least feel like they can play with this team,” EL coach Greg Perkins said. “That’s the goal. This team is beatable, but you have to play mistake-free. It’s as simple as that.”

“The thing about (the Eddies) that they have, they have a lot of desire, and that’s going to take them a long way,” Skowhegan coach Paula Doughty said. “They never stop.”

Like they’ve been doing to teams all season, the Indians, against the flow of play, scored on a fast break just 3:16 into the game. Instead of folding, the Eddies fought back — hard.

A shade less than nine minutes later, Miranda Martin capped a flurry of action in front of Skowhegan keeper Shelby Obert with a goal for Edward Little, just the second goal anyone has scored on Skowhegan this season.

“It makes us work a little bit harder,” Sevey said of her squad allowing the goal. “At first, we kind of freak out a little, but we come back and work harder and we just go after them more, try to score some more goals.”

That was easier said than done for the Indians. The choppy field, the well-above-average heat and the altered pace of play took the players a bit by surprise.

“They’re a good team,” Doughty said. “They play differently than we do, they have a different surface than we have, and it takes a while to adjust to that. In the second half, our kids made the adjustment.”

Jessica Skillings helped things along for the visitors late in the first half with a goal to give the Indians a 2-1 lead at the half.

They then began the second half on fire, rattling off 10 shots toward the goal from inside the circle in the first 10 minutes of the half. But EL keeper Amanda Williams (11 saves) and a patchwork defense held strong.

Sevey broke through that defense with the help of a penalty corner with 16:46 to play. Makaela Michonski drove the ball to the top of the circle on the corner, the ball was tipped back to Sevey, who served it up for Michonski at the left post. She tapped it into the cage to complete the well-organized play and added some breathing room for her squad.

“We really try to get it in there and get the shot off quick,” Sevey said. “We practice them a lot, and they work for us a lot.”

Five minutes later, EL was again on the doorstep, and with an yawning cage, couldn’t get a handle on the ball to put it over the line.

“They were aggressive, and you have to try and capitalize on that,” Perkins said. “We had the chances, we had one in the first half, a little flick over the defender’s stick and it’s in, and in the second we had a battle along the goal line and couldn’t finish. There’s two more that should have gone in. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, but again, they should feel like they got some scoring opportunities and can play even with this team.”

Doughty’s team, meanwhile, collected its ninth win of the season, and a tough test is just what the doctor ordered. The Indians’ won their previous six games by a combined score of 33-0.

“As a coach, you don’t want to lose, but you need a tough test during the season,” Doughty said. “You have to see if a team can come back from being down, or in a close game see if they can hang in there. We made a bunch of adjustments.”

Sevey capped the scoring with a drive past Williams after a giveaway in the defensive circle by the EL defense.

“They hit the ball so hard, and they don’t make the little mistakes that we make,” Perkins said. “We made too many mistakes today, and against a team like that, you really can’t make any.”

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