YARMOUTH — Yarmouth High field hockey coach Andrea Musante stressed offense in practice this week.

The second-seeded Clippers followed through Wednesday, pouring on the goals in a 5-3 victory against seventh-ranked Leavitt in a Class B South quarterfinal.

Yarmouth (11-3-1) will be at home against third-seeded Poland (11-4) in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday.

“Our game plan was offense,” Musante said. “We’ve been focusing on that a ton this week. We’ve had some letdowns in the regular season so we were entirely focused on scoring. To see that number out there for us was great.”

Most of the offense ran through Emilie Martin, who scored four goals, including the opener just nine minutes in.

Martin then fired another shot past Leavitt goalkeeper Hailey DeMascio three minutes later.

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“They were absolutely huge. They set the tone and we needed (those goals) for insurance,” Musante said. “To see a playoff score like that, it’s exciting because it went back and forth.”

Yarmouth had eight shots in the first half and six penalty corners.

The Hornets (8-6-1) had five corners but were held to three first-half shots.

With about 12 minutes left, a deflected ball fell to Cate Ralph, whose long shot increased the Clippers’ lead to three.

Much of Yarmouth’s offense was generated off quick wingers conducting counter-attacks.

“A lot of our goals came on breakaways so they didn’t have a bunch of people clumped in the center of the circle,” Martin said. “I just saw the gap in the middle and I just shot.”

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While Yarmouth dominated most of the first half, Samantha Martineau of Leavitt whipped a long shot off a redirected pass that got by goalkeeper Cayte Tillotson just before halftime. Musante told her team at the break to not let up the intensity.

“We talked about how it was the playoffs and we had given them a taste and that was all we wanted them to have,” Musante said.

Just 21/2 minutes into the second half, Martin scored again with a quick shot past DeMascio, who finished with six saves.

“In the playoffs you never know who’s going to come out stronger because no one wants their season to end,” Musante said.

“When we came out and scored again after the half, it was something we mentioned we needed because I said this wasn’t going to be the end score. They listened and acted on that. It made me very proud of them.”

Kayla Leclerc of Leavitt scored from Haylee Janosco to cut the deficit to two.

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Martin scored her fourth goal with just under 18 minutes remaining on a shot from the top of the circle.

Kaitlyn Leclerc scored Leavitt’s third goal with six minutes left.

Yarmouth held on from there.

“After we put one in we didn’t let up either and kept hammering it,” Martin said. “That’s the intensity we need to keep throughout the playoffs because I want to go far.”


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