POLAND — The Poland Regional High School Knights were firing on all cylinders Saturday in Western Maine Conference field hockey game against the Cape Elizabeth Capers.

Desiree Menard had two goals in the 5-0 victory as the Knights improve 2-5 on the season. Poland fired 26 shots on the Cape net, while the defense limited the Capers to two shots, which both came in the final minute in the contest. It was the only shots Ashley Cloutier faced to earn the two save shutout.

Carly King had a goal and two assists.

The Knights used what they practiced on Friday to use.

“Our big piece is yesterday we spent a lot of time on our wide dodges as well receiving the ball and having a good clean first touch of the pass,” Poland coach Amy Hediger said. “It was one of our main goals coming in was to execute and we also have been working on marking the guy inside our defensive 25 (yard-line). Those two things were really fantastic today and allowed us to have a lot of possession in our offensive end.”

For the players, it was a little strange to control the game as much as they did, but knew they couldn’t have any defensive breakdowns.

“It was definitely different, but we still played all together,” Carly King said. “We try to focus on if it defense, everyone is focused on defense so everyone stays united.”

On the sidelines, players and coaches kept an eye on Cloutier as she didn’t see much action her way.

“We kept checking in with her at different times and the (junior varsity) goalie (Jordan Gregory) was making sure she was mentally alert,” Hediger said. “When you are not having many touches on the ball or even the ball come into the (defensive) 25 (yard-line), you can start not being focused or being alert. So we made sure she was staying alert and she knew that coming into the game. Our goal also was to eliminate their chances in the 25 and in the circles.”

King opened up the scoring just past the 11-minute mark of the opening frame when she received a pass from Higera Nawass, who fired the ball from the Knights defensive zone to King, who started her run in the offensive zone. King took the ball and went in on goal.

King had a very similar goal to break the scoreless deadlock on Thursday in Knights first victory of the season.

“Carly had that hard shot towards the cage,” Hediger said. “She actually won our game in overtime against Freeport with a similar shot. When she has that ball coming in on that angle it’s money in the bank.”

Poland fought for the second goal when there was a scrum in front of the Cape Elizabeth cage where both teams swatted at the ball. The Knights were able to to get three shots off before Mercedes Archer found Sarah Parent who put home the fourth shot in that particular sequence with 9:48 in the half.

The offense kicked right into gear to start the second half when Desiree Menard turned on the jets at midfield and had a breakaway where she had a clean look at Cape Elizabeth (0-8) goalkeeper Eden Divney to make it 3-0 at 1:12 mark. Divney made 10 saves.

“You always have to know the other team can get goals as fast as we can,” Desiree Menard said of applying pressure in the second half. “We have to have a positive mindset.”

Sydney Gosselin jumped in on the act as the sophomore stretched the lead to 4-0 with 19 minutes remaining in the contest. King notched an assist on the goal. Menard capped the scoring with 30 seconds remaining for her second goal of the afternoon.

nfournier@sunjournal.com

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