TURNER — If Thursday’s KVAC field hockey game between Leavitt and Maine Central Institute was scored on time possession, the Hornets would have been the clear winners.

But the Huskies were opportunistic when it counted.

MCI struck late in the first half, early in the second half and late in the game to earn a 3-1 victory. Addi Williams scored twice, and Elspeth Taylor made nine saves in the victory.

“When we get down into the circles, we are pretty good on capitalizing on our opportunities,” MCI coach Nancy Hughes said. “We have worked on changing the direction of the ball in the circle because we know that most goalies are going to stop shots that come directly at them. We worked on getting in moving the ball around and trying to sneak behind the goalie.”

The Hornets they did well in the middle of the field, but not well enough in the circles.

“We had a lot of opportunities in the circle and we couldn’t finish,” Leavitt coach Wanda Ward-MacLean said. “We got a little messed up defensively, clumping into each other. So, that’s never a good thing.

The first half was back and forth, with MCI (4-0) getting the early chances. The Huskies’ fourth shot of the contest hit the post. Leavitt controlled the middle portion of the half,but only managed to get three shots off.

MCI broke the deadlock with 3:22 remaining in the half when Keely Manzo found the back of the net.

“When you have the lead at halftime, you can focus on some aspects to tweak instead of just scoring a goal,” Hughes said. “You can talk about shoring up your defense and maybe some things that weren’t going so well for you. You still get to be very positive about going in with the lead.”

The Huskies carried the momentum into the second half, and Williams put home a Madisyn Hartley rebound to extend the lead.

Hartley has a weapon in her arsenal that created the goal.

“Madisyn Hartley, the girl who does those aerial (shots), has a good trajectory,” Hughes said. “A lot of times, someone who tries that, it’s very dangerous because there’s someone right in front of you. She can go up high to begin with. We tend to sneak it over the goaltender.”

Hartley tried the aerial shot in the first half, but it landed on the top of the goal.

After MCI’s second goal, the Hornets (3-1) took control of the half, and it seemed the ball didn’t leave the MCI zone. The Hornets fired 12 shots on goal in the half and Taylor stood tall in the Huskies goal to keep the lead at two.

Taylor didn’t mind the commotion.

“It depends who I am playing, if it’s a good team like Leavitt is, it definitely keeps me on my toes,” Taylor said. “I find I watch the ball more even if its not in circle. I definitely pay attention to the ball a lot more particularly a team that has good drives, if they are a fast team and know what they are doing. They can very quickly cross one end to the field to the other. You can’t fall asleep.”

Hornets finally solved Taylor with 9:41 remaining in the game when Kaitlyn Leclerc blasted Leavitt’s 10th shot in. Leavitt continued to put the pressure on and had chances, but couldn’t convert.

“We had a bunch of (penalty) corners in a row there about five minutes (to go) and hits coming into the circle,” Ward-MacLean said. “We had our opportunities, we just didn’t convert.”

Leavitt had four of their seven penalty corners in the second half. MCI had five total penalty corners.

Williams iced the game late, scoring with 3:20 remaining with Victoria Friend notching the assist.

nfournier@sunjournal.com

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