Kierstin Leclerc scored once and added two assists and three other Hornets found the back of the cage as No. 4 Leavitt ran away from No. 5 Lake Region 4-0 in the teams’ Western Class B quarterfinal on Tuesday.

“It was important for us to know we could score early,” Leavitt coach Wanda Ward-McLean said. “We don’t play most of these teams we’re going to see in the playoffs, so it’s nice to know we can put some goals in.”

Leavitt plays a KVAC Class B schedule, which includes teams that get classified in Eastern Class B for the playoffs. Lake Region plays in the Western Maine Conference, as does No. 1 seed York and No. 3 seed Cape Elizabeth. No. 2 Spruce Mountain plays in the predominantly Class C Mountain Valley Conference.

Leavitt, which won all of its playoff contests a year ago by a 1-0 count, finally cracked the two-goal plateau Tuesday in the first half.

Meagan Dow potted the first for the Hornets, redirecting a Leclerc drive on a set play off a penalty corner 9:33 into the contest.

“We’ve been working on that corner for a while, and we could never get it right,” Leclerc said. “It came to me, I drove it toward the net and Meagan tipped it in.”

Leclerc scored the second goal of the game for Leavitt with 6:20 to play in the opening half, converting a bouncing ball into a hard shot from the left side of the circle that found its way past Lake Region keeper Meghan VanLoan.

“I think it really boosted our confidence and showed that we can score more than one goal in a playoff game,” Leclerc said.

Emily Shaw added another with 1:47 to play in the first with a drive from the top of the circle, again on a penalty corner.

“We just came in with confidence and we really wanted to win,” Leclerc said.

The Hornets came out passive in the second half, and the Lakers tried to take advantage, maintaining pressure in the Leavitt end of the field for better than 15 minutes. But the Hornets did not break.

“It feels pretty good, but for a while there, it felt like it was 1-0,” Ward-McLean said. “They played hard in the second half. They started cutting harder to the ball and we got more passive, which you can’t do, and it’s not our normal thing. We didn’t cut to the ball well in the second half, offensively anyway.”

The Lakers nearly broke the shutout with about five minutes to play when officials awarded them a penalty stroke after a Leavitt defender played the ball with her hand, but keeper Sierra Santomango stared the shot down and it went wide left.

Sadie Royer capped the scoring with her first of the playoffs and the team’s fourth of the game with 17 seconds to play, finishing a scramble in front after catching VanLoan out of position.

Leavitt will next play Saturday against the winner of the game between No. 1 York and No. 8 Freeport. If Freeport wins, Leavitt will host the game, otherwise, the Hornets will travel to York for the semifinal contest.

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