AUBURN – Even before the game started, Sacopee Valley was short-handed with just two players on the bench.

St. Dom’s made them pay.

The Saints took advantage of the Hawks’ lack of depth, weakened even more by a couple of additional injuries during the game, to post a 5-0 victory Tuesday, extending their early-season record to 2-0.

“I think the tendency was to sit back after the two early goals,” said St. Dom’s coach Kathy Little. “I think we were on our heels and not playing well, but we came around and got it together in the second half. We played much better in that half.”

St. Dom’s rolled out sub after sub throughout the game, but the Hawks were limited from the beginning. And then came the injuries.

The goalkeeper suffered a potential broken arm and one of the Hawks forwards left after a hit to the head. For the final 20 minutes Sacopee Valley played with no subs.

By that point, though, the game was well in St. Dom’s hands.

“We’re kind of a M.A.S.H. unit out there right now,” said Sacopee Valley coach Kevin Murphy. “I wouldn’t trade these girls for anyone else. They were great despite all of the time they had to play.”

Renee Meservier started things off for the Saints with a direct kick from 18 yards that skipped off the goalkeeper’s hands and snuck under the crossbar 1:20 into the game. Less than three minutes later, Heidi DeHaan added another for the Saints on a nice feed across the goal mouth by Rachel Nadeau.

“We started really well last game, too,” said Nadeau. “We have played very well together as a team so far this season, and it’s showing on the scoreboard.”

In the second half, the Saints played with more ball control, and picked their spots.

“We played with more intensity, more to our potential in the second half,” said Little. “We had the lead earlier, and I’ll take that, but we didn’t have a very strong start.”

Nadeau added two more assists in the second half and Michelle Hamann, Autumn Bell and Emily St. Pierre each added goals to finish off the scoring.

The Saints’ schedule toughens up this week with games against Fryeburg on Thursday and North Yarmouth Academy on Saturday.