SANFORD — All game long, Scarborough’s experienced field hockey team had been thwarted on its intricate penalty corner attempts by youthful Sanford’s aggressive defense.

So when the game went to overtime at 1-1 on Thursday night and their first two penalty corners again resulted in no goals, Abby Walker and Maddy Dobecki of Scarborough decided to freelance a little.

“Our plan was just to send it to me and just to see what happens,” Walker said. “Give and go or something, and I just saw that I had the room so I just took it.”

What Walker saw on Scarborough’s 18th penalty corner at Goodall Park was that for one of the few times Sanford was slow to challenge. With the opening, she flipped a shot high into the left corner for the winner in the 2-1 sudden-death decision.

Defending Western Class A champ Scarborough improved to 5-0. Sanford is now 4-1.

“They always give us a good game,” Walker said. “They show up and they play hard, and they don’t let us slack off and they make sure we play our best, too. They scored right back on us and they weren’t going to let us slow down or take a breath.”

Sanford Coach Diana Walker said the flip shot by Scarborough’s Walker was a smart play due to extra space created by overtime’s seven-on-seven format and particularly at night. She noted her goalie Sarah Goldthwaite had a hard time reading the ball while looking up into the baseball stadium lights.

“If we had gone out on her she wouldn’t have been able to lift it because we would have been there,” Sanford’s Walker said. “That’s a learning part of the game right there.”

But none of the Spartans were blaming a defense led by Hannah Rossignol.

“Our (defense) throughout the whole game was amazing. They held their own and it would have been a totally different game if we hadn’t had such a strong defense,” said Liz Helmreich, who had the tying goal for Sanford.

After a scoreless first half, the Red Storm’s first shot of the second half put them ahead with 19:11 to play. Ashley Levesque converted from Kristen Murray.

For the next several minutes, Scarborough forwards and midfielders repeatedly intercepted attempted clearing attempts.

But one of those blasts, from Allison L’Heureux, did get through. It freed Helmreich, who sped up the left sideline, worked through two defenders and got a shot just past Scarborough goalie Alyssa Souza with 7:14 to play.

“We have a lot of confidence even though we’re a young team,” Helmreich said. “We knew that we could do it. If we put our hearts and minds into it we could play with them, and they’re a spectacular team and now people know we are, too.”

Both coaches felt the challenge was good.

“This is why we play the sport,” Scarborough Coach Kerry Mariello said. “Any close game is what you live for. You don’t want to just dominate.”