BUCKFIELD — Records don’t mean anything once a game begins. That was proven in a big way Monday.

Buckfield entered its girls’ soccer game against Old Orchard Beach sporting a 7-2 record, while the Seagulls came in with a 1-6-2 mark. Yet it took only a few minutes for the assumptions of those records to go out the window. Old Orchard Beach jumped out to a 3-0 lead six minutes in and then added a handful of goals in the second half of an 8-0 victory.

“That’s a pretty darn good one-win team right there,” Buckfield coach Larry Thornton said. “I knew what they had competed against.”

The Class C Seagulls (2-6-2) have played a seasons’ worth of close games in the Western Maine Conference, with only one loss by more than two goals. But the offensive output of eight goals was new for them, having totaled just six entering Monday.

“I knew we had a couple goals in us — eight is nice, to finally put some shots on goal,” OOB coach Heath Floyd said “I told them, ‘If you put it on goal, it’s got a chance to go in.’ I was very happy for the girls, we’ve been working hard now 10 games to finally put up some big numbers.”

Maegan Halle opened the scoring less than two minutes in. Payje Leclerc and Emily Greenlee then scored less than a minute apart to make it 3-0 in the blink of an eye.

“That’s kind of one of the things that we’ve been struggling with this year, is that first 10, 15 minutes in, and coming out slow,” Thornton said. “Today, with a team like Old Orchard Beach, they take advantage of that. And they will force your mistakes, and then they will capitalize on your mistakes.”

Thornton said this year’s team hasn’t dealt with that kind of adversity, getting stunned on the scoreboard right off the bat.

Likewise, Floyd said his team hasn’t enjoyed that kind of early lead, and the Seagulls responded by “(sitting) back a little bit.”

The 3-0 score stood at halftime. After OOB’s early spurt, the Bucks (7-3) actually had more shots on goal for the remainder of the first half. Julia Dow had a couple good looks that sailed just wide.

“I was happy with the way we kind of held our own there through the first half,” Thornton said. “The last 30 minutes we kind of held it together, and I thought we were going to be OK and at least continue to compete.”

Thornton said there was no “rah rah” during his talk at halftime, just imploring his side that it was better than what they showed in the first half, and the players had to get back to playing aggressive.

But the second half only saw more goals by the Seagulls. Samantha Donnell scored three minutes in, assisted by Greenlee, who also helped on Leclerc’s second marker 10 minutes in.

Caitlyn Perrigo scored a direct kick, Bri Plante converted a penalty kick, and Donnell assisted on Riley Blatchford’s goal to complete the scoring.

Kaylee Harvey made nine saves in goal for the Bucks, and her defense helped out with another save on a corner kick. Tiffany Leclair stopped all five shots she faced for the Seagulls.

“It’s good for us,” Thornton said. “I don’t like losing 8-0, don’t get me wrong. To be able, though, to compete like that, we’ve got to be able to do better. And we will.

“It’s important to compete against teams like this, going forward for us. Playing against teams like that is going to make us better.”

The Bucks are off until Saturday, when they travel to Greater Portland Christian. In the meantime, the plan is just to “get back to work” and “get back to doing some basics.”

The loss doesn’t mean much for Buckfield in the standings, but to the Seagulls, a second win this season means a big jump in the Class C South playoff race.

“Buckfield’s a very quality Class D team, and they’re going to win a bunch of games,” Floyd said. “This kind of puts us in the mix now, for sure.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com