Saint Dominic Academy’s Hannah Trottier-Braun, splits the Sacopee Valley defense and maintains control of the ball to make a pass to a teammate during Monday afternoon’s field hockey game in Auburn.

AUBURN— When Hannah Trottier-Braun scores, the goals come in bunches.

Monday was no different. She scored six times in St. Dom’s 11-0 victory over Sacopee Valley in a WMC field hockey game.

She doesn’t have a specific reason why they come one right after another.

“I just put a lot of effort into they way I play, intensity, never give up on that ball, put it in the back of the net,” Trottier-Braun said.

Sacopee Valley coach Jaci Ritter took positives from the game. She reminded her players that they lost 16-0 in last year’s season opener and how they got frustrated early on in that game. In this defeat, she liked that her team didn’t stop competing despite another lopsided score.

“We knew it was going to be a tough contest coming in,” Ritter said. “(St. Dom’s) has great skills and great communication. Our goal today was to play our game and not be brought down when they played well. We tried to work on a couple of things we have been doing in practice over the last week and a half that we needed to work on. Our free hits were much better and our marking in the circle was much better.”

Paige Cote, another key contributor for St. Dom’s (3-0) on Monday with two goals and two assists, put up the Saints first goal of the afternoon 7 minutes, 30 seconds into the first half off an assist from Kylie Leavitt.

St. Dom’s coach Brian Kay admitted his team came out a little sluggish from a couple days off, but the Saints found their offensive rhythm after back-to-back goals from Trottier-Braun about a minute apart with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the first half. Both of those goals were assisted by Leavitt.

“We all contribute a lot,” Trottier-Braun said. “The scoring is not the biggest part of the game to us. It’s how we play as a team. We pass and that’s a big thing we work on in practices. We pass back and forth, set up our shots nicely instead of taking bad shots. We set them up to have a nice clean shot on net.”

Cote continued her outstanding play for the remainer of the half. With 5:54 to go, she drew a penalty stroke and her shot had enough momentum to cross the goal line after initially hitting Sacopee Valley goalie Haley Babb’s pads.

Babb made eight saves for Sacopee Valley (2-1), while the Saints fired 25 shots toward her in the game.

Nearly three minutes later, Cote set up what Kay called one of the nicest goals he’s ever seen in his 18 years coaching at St. Dom’s. Cote raced down the right wing, and as she was running out of space she sent a cross towards the goal. Trottier-Braun, who was slightly behind the play, raced to the cross and just got a stick on the ball to deflect it in.

“I try to look up before a pass and I can usually always count on Hannah to be there,” Cote said. “I know that I can can cross to her. Nine out of 10 times, she will definitely get it.”

The goal came with 3:03 remaining in the first half.

The momentum carried into the second half as Trottier-Braun set up Bailey Derocher’s goal just before the two-minute mark. Caroline Johnson made it 7-0 right before the 10-minute mark of the second half.

Trottier-Braun scored the next three goals as the Saints lead reached to double digits. After being the playmaker in the first half, Leavitt found the back of the net with 6:20 remaining in the game.

Just like the previous two games this season, Saints goalie Abby Slonina did not have to make a save as her teammates have outscored the competition 35-0.

“For the first three games, there hasn’t been a shot on goal, which is good,” Kay said. “Defense is stepping up when they got to step up. The offense is doing their job, too.”

nfournier@sunjournal.com

Saint Dominic Academy’s Hannah Trottier-Braun, left and Sacopee Valley’s Livy Barriault, right, battle for the ball during Monday afternoon’s field hockey game in Auburn.

Saint Dominic Academy’s Paige Cote, left and Sacopee Valley’s Grace Sanborn battle for the ball during Monday afternoon’s field hockey game in Auburn.

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