AUBURN – Edward Little had no answer in the second half for Brianna Thompson on Tuesday.
The senior center ran up and down the field with little resistance after the intermission, and dominated the offensive end. Her four goals in the final 25 minutes helped Oxford Hills pull away with a 15-7 girls’ lacrosse victory.
The Vikings (4-5) led 7-3 at the half, when Thompson took control.
She triggered a quick three-goal outburst in the first four minutes of the second half, by putting a pair of scores past Red Eddie goalie JoJo Hughes (15 saves).
Thompson made it 12-5 a few minutes later, when she picked up a loose ball and used her quickness to race into the open field and deposited the shot into the net.
“It was hard,” said Thompson of her attempts in the first half to find any open field. “(Beth Esponette) did a really good job of marking up. She made me work.”
The second half was a different story.
“I pushed myself harder to find open spaces,” said Thompson.
Thompson worked a little give-and-go with Susie Mayberry on her last goal.
After carrying the ball from the midfield area to the top of the fan, she passed the ball back to Mayberry and continued over to the right wing.
Mayberry then turned, and found a cutting Thompson with an overhead pass for the score.
Aimee McKeen is normally the Vikings’ (4-5) top scorer, but Kate Woodward kept her in check for much of the game. Woodward limited her to just one goal until McKeen found the twine again with 6:53 remaining.
“Kate did an excellent job on her,” said Edward Little coach Jim Platz. “She played a strong defense.”
The Vikings were thwarted for much of the first half by Hughes. She made nine saves with many of the shots coming on open looks from in close. Felecia Starbird had one of those looks, but Hughes made a pad save and deflected the ball away. A few minutes later Thompson rocketed a shot headed for Hughes’ five-hole, but the Red Eddie keeper stopped the attempt by squeezing her pads shut with the ball between them.
“We couldn’t shoot low,” said Thompson. “We had to shoot higher.”
At the break, Oxford Hills coach Ann Bell stressed to her players to alter their angles when attacking the net.
“I told them we had to stop shooting at her and shoot at the net,” said Bell. “That helped.”
Starbird, McKeen, Kari Pellitier and Jaimee Brett (three goals) all added single tallies in the second half for the Vikings.
“They just kept the pressure on the whole game,” said Platz.
Esponette paced the Red Eddies with three scores while Katy Bonnie added a pair of goals and two assists.
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