Lisbon’s Savannah Czechalski tracks down teh ball as teammate Shelby Cyr (25) and Boothbay’s Sydney Mercier close in during Wednesday’s game in Lisbon.

LISBON — Boothbay exploded for five second-half goals en route to a 6-0 victory over Lisbon in Mountain Valley Conference field hockey action Wednesday.

Senior Sydney Meader netted four goals for the Seahawks in the victory. Meader has verbally committed to play field hockey for the University of Maine at Orono next fall.

Boothbay attacked early, pushing the Lisbon defense back on their heels to open the half, putting a few shots on net but with no goals to show for it.

Lisbon called a timeout at the 20:49 mark, during which Lisbon coach Julie Petrie told her athletes to stop double-teaming within 25 yards of the net because it was leaving the center open. Out of the timeout, 46 seconds later, Meader took a pass from Sydney Mercier and fired it past Lisbon goalie Mikaylia Harnden for a 1-0 Seahawks lead.

Trailing by a goal, Lisbon’s offense sensed some urgency and created some opportunities deep in its zone, led by Savannah Czechalski and Sydney Plourde. Plourde shot just wide with nine minutes left after carrying the ball downfield through the Boothbay defense.

Plourde once again had a chance to score when her shot on net was stopped by Boothbay netminder Emily Amaral with under seven minutes remaining in the half.

Boothbay nearly got another goal before the half when Chloe Arsenault shot point blank at Harnden but was senior goal turned her away, one of her eight first half saves, keeping the score 1-0 at the half.

“Mikaylia played great for us today. She had to turn away a few shots for us. I’m proud of her,” Petrie said.

The second half opened with a lot of volleying back and forth, both sides not generating much on offense. As the half developed, Lisbon’s defense began to collapse, players not getting back to the circle to play defense. As a result, Meader nailed home her second goal of the contest a little over 11 minutes into the half putting Boothbay up, 2-0.

“She’s a good player. She’ll do well at the next level,” Boothbay coach Donna Jordan said.

Three minutes later, the senior found the back of the cage with her third score of the game and giving the visitors a 3-0 lead.

“Once you get down a goal or two, you start to get down and that started happening with our players,” Petrie said. “We’re still young and some of these girls have got to learn.”

Both coaches commented on how each side of the field plays. Lisbon defended the north side of the field in the second half where the grass is short, if there is any, making play a lot faster for the offense. On the south side, the grass is thicker, making it tougher for the offense to get anything going offensively.

“I really think the difference (in the second half) was the field conditions. Because in the circle we faced in the first half, the grass is very long and limits what you can do offensively. The second half, this side is shorter and that changes the game you play and we welcomed the shorter,” Jordan said.

“Our field’s not great right now, not to make any excuses, but the ball moves great down at this end (north end). We didn’t take advantage of that in the first half, where we could have scored a couple of goals and built some momentum, but that didn’t happen,” Petrie said.

After a Lisbon yellow card left the Greyhounds a player short for five minutes, Boothbay pushed across a pair of goals against a short-handed Lisbon defense. Arsenault scored first with eight minutes remaining and Mercier followed a minute-and-a-half later for the Seahawks’ fifth goal.

“This is the first night this season that we’ve been aggressive. We’ve been working, working and working on it so I was glad to that here tonight,” Jordan said.

“They crossed the ball well, they have speed, they carry it well and were able to put shots on goal,” Petrie said.

Meader scored the final goal with a blistering shot untouched from 10 yards out.

“My players have never seen a player of that caliber before. She’s a great player. She’s got sick skills,” Petrie said. “She’s a quick player and has a great shot. I told my players constantly to defend her but I think it took them to actually see how good she was to say, ‘Hey, I need to mark her up.’ That was in our gameplan.”

The Seahawks outshot the Greyhounds, 16-6, and took the edge in corners, 13-3. Lisbon’s Harnden finished with 16 saves, while Amaral turned away six for Boothbay.

Boothbay improves to 4-1 on the season while Lisbon falls to 1-4.

Lisbon’s Sydney Plourde runs downfield as Boothbay’s Page Brown gives chase Wednesday at Lisbon High School.
Lisbon’s Savannah Czechalski tracks down the ball against Boothbay on Wednesday in Lisbon.
Lisbon’s Mallory Fairbanks follows through during the Greyhounds’ game against Boothbay on Wednesday.

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