LEWISTON — The Oxford Hills field hockey team was most successful when its players hustled to the ball in a 4-1 victory over Lewiston at Don Roux Field on Monday.

“I think when we started stepping into the ball and winning the 50-50 balls and making nice passes — going to the outside and not up the middle, I think that’s when we had opportunities to score,” Oxford Hills coach Cindy Goddard said.

Forward Sierra Carson paced the Vikings’ (4-0) offense with two goals.

Lewiston coach Jenessa Talarico said she was happy with how the Blue Devils (1-3) played, despite the score.

“Even though the score wasn’t exactly what we’d hope, it was a very back-and-forth game,” Talarico said. “We are still young offensively — we don’t have a single senior on the forward line. Really working together to score goals is going to be a huge thing we got to work on this season. Overall, I thought (we) played hard.”

Lewiston only has four seniors on the roster but 14 juniors.

The Vikings began creating offensive chances midway through the first quarter, including a breakaway by Carson that Lewiston goalie Kim McLaughlin (six saves) stopped to keep the game scoreless.

“I thought (McLaughlin) played really well,” Talarico said. “You can only ask so much from your goalie, but I thought she did her job tonight.”

Carson said the breakaway, though unsuccessful, gave the Vikings confidence in their ability to create offense.

“The energy of we can get (the ball) into the circle and get (scoring) attempts,” Carson said.

Later in the first, Oxford Hills received back-to-back penalty corners. On the second, Carson battled for the loose ball in the circle and put it in the cage for the first goal of the game.

The Vikings mounted an offensive attack early in the second quarter that ended with Brynn Bean shooting the ball past McLaughlin for a 2-0 lead.

Bean also had an assist in the game.

The Blue Devils’ first scoring chances came in the third quarter. A long shot off a penalty corner just went wide of the cage. They had another penalty corner a minute later, but the shot deflected out of bounds. Lewiston had a third corner attempt, but Oxford Hills goalie Gabby Wright made a save to shut it down.

Talarico said the strong start to the second half was execution of what the Blue Devils discussed during halftime.

“We really focused on the fact that the score didn’t represent how hard we played in the first half, and we were going to come out hard in the second half,” Talarico said. “I think that showed as we had more opportunities right away.”

Oxford Hills assistant coach Hayly Holmon is in charge of the team’s penalty corners, and she said the Vikings are still learning to defend them.

“Our defensive corners are a work in progress,” Holmon said. “We like to (scout) early on a team if we can; it dictates how we play. A well-executed corner is tough to defend.”

Oxford Hills flipped the field after Lewiston’s third corner attempt and Carson’s blast from the top of the circle put the Vikings on top 3-0 midway through the third quarter.

“Usually, we are good in the first half (about creating momentum); it’s usually in the second half we have to get that momentum,” Carson said.

The Vikings continued to win battles inside the Lewiston circle. Allegra Meagher got her stick on the ball after it entered the circle on a passing attempt and put a shot into the goal.

Meagher normally plays defense and was excited when she scored.

“She only plays defense, and we switched her to offense (today), and who doesn’t like to score?” Goddard said.

Lewiston’s goal was scored near the midpoint of the fourth quarter when junior Allison Lavallee beat Wright (three saves).

“Allison has really stepped up (this year),” Talarico said. “As a sophomore, she was maybe playing 10 minutes a game — now it’s almost every minute of the entire game. She’s one of our leaders and really put (the ball) in when we needed it most.”

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