Winning a preliminary game in the Class B soccer tournament is a trick-or-treat proposition.

You’re moving on, but there’s a good chance you’re going to be facing a southern or coastal team whose players have been refining their skills since they stopped crawling and sleeping in a crib.

That’s the plight of the No. 7 Leavitt girls’ soccer team, whose reward for a 2-1 victory over No. 10 Lincoln is a Tuesday night visit to Cumberland to face No. 2 Greely.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Leavitt coach Chris Cifelli said.

Funny, but it would be unwise to sell the Hornets short.

Leavitt may not have the cache that the likes of Greely, top-seeded Cape Elizabeth, Morse and Yarmouth share on the pitch. The Hornets have emerged as a steady, consistent playoff presence, however, especially since returning to the Class B fray a few seasons ago.

This year’s team is young and talented. Captain and midfielder Tatiana Sierra, who scored the second goal against Lincoln, is one of only six seniors. Strikers Liliana Cousineau and Shannon O’Malley are a sophomore and a freshman, respectively.

Junior goalie Angela Daigle made several spectacular stops among her 10 saves against the Eagles. Having a keeper on a hot streak gives Leavitt at least a puncher’s chance against Greely.

“We told her she has to have her ‘A’ game in the playoffs. As the tournament goes, the shooting gets better,” Cifelli said. “She was incredible. I liked how she took command in the box. It took away some of their strategy.”

Youth will be served

Too early to start thinking about the 2014 season? Don’t tell that to the Oak Hill field hockey team.

The Raiders can’t wait for next summer and fall, and with good reason.

“Everybody’s coming back,” Oak Hill coach Betsy Gilbert said.

Only three of the Raiders’ combined 27 varsity and junior varsity players were seniors this season, and all 11 that were introduced as starters prior to a Western Class C quarterfinal at Yarmouth are underclassmen.

Forward Hayley Marshall, who scored the Raiders’ goal in a 2-1 loss to the Clippers, is a junior along with midfielders Heather Hannigan, Danielle Samson, Courtney Roy and Kayla Veilleux, forward Sadie Goulet and defenders Brooke Surette and Autumn Frechette.

Goaltender Abby Fuller and forward Kylee Veilleux are sophomores, and another starting forward, Lexi Fuller, is a freshman.

Oak Hill held powerful Yarmouth to no shots on goal or penalty corners in the first half on its artificial turf home field before the third-seeded Clippers squirmed away.

“They weren’t intimidated,” Gilbert said of her team. “They actually play better on turf.”

As for the Raiders’ 7-7-1 record, it is extremely deceiving. Four of the seven losses were against regional finalists Spruce Mountain and Lisbon. Winthrop and Dirigo were the only other teams to defeat Oak Hill during the MVC regular season, and they advanced to the semifinals in their respective tournaments.

In the long run

Barring injury, illness or a broken-down bus, Ben Allen of Winthrop knows he won’t catch Josef Holt-Andrews of Telstar in next Saturday’s Class C individual cross country championship. Holt-Andrews has been more than a minute ahead of Allen and everyone else in every meet of consequence this fall.

Allen has ample motivation to excel in the state meet at Twin Brook in Cumberland, however.

“I really want to make it to New Englands,” Allen explained. “It’s the top 25 times in the state meet, and the three individual state champions automatically go, so basically the top 22 in the state overall. I feel like that’s within reach.”

Based on regional performances, other local runners with strong New England aspirations are the Lewiston pack of Mohamed Awil, Isaiah Harris, Farhan Abdillahi, Osman Mohamed and Mohamed Mohamed (boys) and Farhiyo Aden, Faith Shaw and Nicole Footer (girls); Josh Horne, Aaron Willingham, Dan Lesko, Maggie Hickey and Katherine Gunther of Mt. Blue; Will Shafer and Ben Garcia of Gray-New Gloucester; Harrison Knowlton and Julia Labbe of Leavitt; Jonathan Hankey of Oxford Hills; Holt-Andrews and Gabi Stone of Telstar; and Nick Harriman of Lisbon.

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