JAY — The lack of familiarity with its opponent didn’t stop Spruce Mountain from wanting to pick up the tempo for Tuesday’s Western Class B field hockey quarterfinal.

Even when it became apparent that sixth-seeded Falmouth had a lot of speed and good stick-handlers befitting a team that plays its home games on turf, the third-seeded Phoenix didn’t want to deviate from its strength.

Erin Gats scored twice and the Phoenix defense, backed by aggressive goaltending from Ashlee Quirrion, withstood multiple waves of Falmouth pressure to preserve a 3-2 victory.

“We loved (the pace),” co-coach Jane DiPompo said. “At (Monday’s) practice, we said we wanted to keep an up-tempo pace. Speed is one of the things we like to capitalize on. Weve got a little bit of depth this year, so we’re OK going fast.”

The frenetic pace lasted into the final minute, when Megan Fortier, who scored both Falmouth goals, scored to pull the Yachtsmen within one with 48 seconds to go. Falmouth had two penalty corners in the ensuing seconds, but the defense, led by Micaela Baron, Mariah Castonguay, Emily Taylor and Rachel Goding, kept the Yachtsmen from getting off a shot.

“The defense did an amazing job,” said Quirrion, who had 17 saves. “We dealt with (the pressure). We’ve practiced hard and we’re moving on.”

“Ashlee had some awesome saves today,” DiPompo said. “She stepped up. She brought her ‘A’ game today.”

The Phoenix coaching staff were urging their players to pick up the pace even after Gats found Kathryn Ventrella for the game’s first goal with 25:49 left in the first half.

Falmouth (9-5-1) didn’t allow many balls to its side of the field, but the Phoenix (14-0-1) did take advantage when the opportunities arose. Gats poked home a Ventrella shot to the left of Falmouth goalie Hillary Nash to double the lead with 12:47 left in the first half.

“We knew 2-0 was not a big enough lead from past experience, and we kept telling the girls that,” co-coach Julia Parker said.

“They were really good, and the past two games, we’ve let go of a lead,” Ventrella said. “We knew that we had to keep working as hard as we could to keep the lead.”

Falmouth, which held a 19-8 advantage in shots and 18-5 advantage in penalty corners, had a goal that would have cut the deficit in half disallowed by a foot foul.  Quirrion later made a diving stop on a redirected shot.

Quirrion was helpless to stop Fortier’s first goal, a screaming slap shot from the top left of the circle with 17:08 left in the game. The speedy Fortier had a breakaway try moments later but collided with Quirrion about eight yards from the cage.

Gats provided the critical insurance goal with 7:58 to go, knocking home Rachel Calden’s shot after it hit off the left post.

“It bounced off the post and there was a defender coming after it and I just hit it in,” Gats said.

“This was a big game for us,” Gats said. “Playing Class C all season (in the Mountain Valley Conference), we didn’t know what Class B had in store for us. So it’s a huge win.”

Ironically, the Phoenix will be able to host this Saturday’s semifinal against the only other Class B team in the MVC, seventh-seeded Mountain Valley, which upset No. 2 Fryeburg Academy.